You’re barely human. For every one of your own cells in your body, there are many microbial ones. They not only outnumber you, but they affect your health and your mind. Bits and pieces of this microbial menagerie have been revealed over time, but a massive study – the Human Microbiome Project – has just unveiled the most thorough picture yet of the microscopic majority that colonises us.

I wrote about this for The Scientist, so head over there to guzzle the details.

The key point, however, is individuality. While some broad groups of microbes that everywhere, the study failed to find any species that are universally present in the same body part across all people. However, those incredibly diverse microbes