Here’s a brief but mindblowing article from Science Daily. The cells or our body–skin, blood, brain, all of it–are only 10% of all the cells in our body…the other 90% are bacteria…and yet we are the interaction of our actual bodies (and genetically, our genome) and all those bacteria. The Holobiont they call us, i.e. you and your bacteria, and the Hologenome, your genes and all those bacterial genes (a galaxy’s worth of genes, I suspect, untold numbers). Everything we are, right down to our emotions and health and interactions and thinking and mating habits, might be a result of a combination of our bodies and our bacteria. Perhaps “might be” is being too conservative, perhaps everything we are and think and do is a result of a combination of our bodies and our bacteria. We are just now getting a glimmer, just a hint of how this works. But essentially what you think of as you is actually an ecosystem of you and a zillion bacteria, and what you think of as, say, your cat is your cat and all it’s bacteria, and the mutual affection you have for, say, your cat is actually you and your bacteria and the cat and its bacteria reacting to each other. But wait, there’s more. That woman at the bar who sat next to you and you talked to all night and are still thinking about today? That wasn’t just her perfume that made you swoon. It was pheromones, everyone knows that. Pop science. You can even buy supposed pheromones to increase your attractiveness to the opposite sex. But think about what those pheromones really are. Is it the scent of pheromones themselves that kept you focused on him or her all night? Or was it pheromones interacting with the bacteria that thrive in the lush, warm, sweaty, hairy places beneath our arms and between our legs (and, hairlessly, behind the ears for some reason). Mostly it was the scent of millions (billions?) of bacteria heated by the increased blood flow to her armpits and groin and behind the ears. You attracted her the same way. You and your bacteria dug her, and she and her bacteria dug you. If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is..

Anyway, here’s the article….

Don’t look now, but the pronoun “I” is becoming obsolete. (Science Daily)