Curiosity Daily Podcast: Did Your Microbiome Come from Dirt?

Award-winning journalist and economist Tim Harford explains three simple rules for understanding statistics and evaluating truth in the news. Then, you’ll learn about why our microbiomes may have come from dirt.

March 10, 2021

Episode Show Notes:

Additional resources from Tim Harford:

Pick up "The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics" on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3ad1dQ4
Tim Harford's website: https://timharford.com/
Tim Harford on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TimHarford

Microbes in dental plaque are more like soil microbes than tongue microbes, which suggests our microbiomes came from dirt by Cameron Duke

Caldwell, A. (2020, December 15). Microbes in dental plaque look more like relatives in soil than those on the tongue. EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-12/uocm-mid121420.php
Shaiber, A., Willis, A. D., Delmont, T. O., Roux, S., Chen, L.-X., Schmid, A. C., Yousef, M., Watson, A. R., Lolans, K., Esen, Ö. C., Lee, S. T. M., Downey, N., Morrison, H. G., Dewhirst, F. E., Mark Welch, J. L., & Eren, A. M. (2020). Functional and genetic markers of niche partitioning among enigmatic members of the human oral microbiome. Genome Biology, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13059-020-02195-w

Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://www.amazon.com/Curiosity-com-Curiosity-Daily-from/dp/B07CP17DJY

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Next Up

A Guide to Defending the Earth

Let’s say one day astronomers announce that our worst nightmare has come true: a large object is headed towards the Earth with a significant chance of impact. What do we do?

Shark Week: The Podcast - Do You Have the Guts to Be a Shark Handler?

Host Luke Tipple welcomes a pair of divers – Leigh Cobb and Josh Eccles – who have taken their passion for sharks and turned it into a dangerous career. They explore what it takes to swim with sharks for a living, then go into common myths and facts on what to do in the open water – if you ever come face to face with a shark. Plus, our researcher Sierra drops by with a new species of shark discovered in the freezing depths of the ocean.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Nobel Prize Winner Richard Thaler on How Nudge Changed the World — Plus, Squirrel-Inspired Robots

Nobel Prize-winning economist Richard Thaler explains how “Nudge” has changed the world. Plus: squirrel-inspired robots!