Recently, a piece of news about the detection of microorganisms before the thirteenth astronaut drank water was on the hot search. Living in space, it is very important to keep water safe. Astronauts have to conduct microbiological tests on water samples every month to see if the water drunk in space is clean, which has aroused heated discussion among netizens.
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In fact, the role of microorganisms on the human body is far beyond your imagination, the following science popularization of the important impact of microorganisms on the human body.
The ancient Greek historian Plutarch recorded a story in which the ship he rode was commemorated for hundreds of years after the return of Thesis, king Theseus, who had killed the Minotaur of Crete, returned to Athens. The reason why it has been preserved for so long is because one of the wooden planks on the ship has decayed, and people will replace a new one. In the end, there is not even one of the original planks left on the ship, so is it still the original ship intact?
This paradox is called the "Ship of Theseus." In fact, if this ship is replaced with a human body, many "variants" of the paradox can be derived. For example, from the day we are born, our cells constantly renew and repair themselves. The most primitive cell had long since ceased to exist. So is the "me" now still the original me?
Of course, what we talk about masturbation is that no matter how the cells are renewed and replaced, they all use "original components". And a new discovery from the University of California, San Diego, made me "intolerable" - "I" was not "pure original"!
Studies have shown that only 43% of the human body is its own cells, and the remaining 57% are microorganisms; there are 20,000 genes in humans themselves, and 20 million microbial genes in the human body! What's even more frightening is that the human gut microbiome can even determine a person's personality, IQ, life expectancy and even mental illness!
I seem to see that no matter how the "Ship of Theseus" of my own cells replaces the wooden planks, it is only a corner of the "temple" of the body, and whether it is intact or not is debatable; and the huge microbial "souvenir" occupies most of the space of the temple, even the "core position"!
So, is "me" really me? Or the microbes in my body?
One might feel ridiculous about my problem, "I" is a collection of self-awareness and behaviors generated by the brain. No matter how "noisy" the microorganisms are, they can't break through the "blood-brain barrier" in the body, you know, the brain is the headquarters of the human body!
If you hold this idea and think that as long as you keep the "pure land" of the brain, you can let "I" occupy the high ground, then you are too small to see the role of microorganisms.
Let me start with the example of a dinosaur. At the beginning of the twentieth century, it was found that dinosaurs such as Mamenxi Dragon and Liang Dragon, which were too large, generally exceeded 20 meters in length, resulting in a lack of brains. So they will grow a swollen nerve ball on the spine of the hip, the so-called "intestinal brain", to assist the work of the brain.
However, in recent years, scientists have found that human beings also have intestines and brains! Unlike dinosaurs, the human gut was found in the sheaths of the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and colon. The brain is able to think and remember because of its nerve cells. Do you think nerve cells are unique to the brain? There are also intestinal brains! And it's about the amount in the brain!
Therefore, the human body has two "commands". They communicate through "telephone lines," or vagus nerves. We all know that people's depression, happiness, and various behaviors come from two neurotransmitters in the brain, serotonin and dopamine.
So where do serotonin and dopamine in the brain come from? Tell you a set of data, 95% of the serotonin and 50% of dopamine in the human body are delivered by the intestines to the brain! The synthesis of these neurotransmitters depends on the microorganisms in the intestines and brains!
You see, in this sense, the brain is at best a "former enemy command", while the intestinal brain is the "rear command", and the decision-making level in the "rear command" is still microorganisms!
Therefore, it is not difficult to understand that people's temperament has changed greatly, or sometimes they have done strange things. I believe that everyone has ever had this situation, this is not a "brain short circuit", but the microbiome issued a wrong command. We don't know what percentage of the decisions we make on a daily basis, conscious or unconscious behavior, come from the brain and the microbes within me.
So, "I" really don't have an advantage over the microbes in my body. The history of human development may be a history of microbial development. (Zihua)