Bacillus subtillus, normal soil and human gut bacteria. Photo by Felix Tsao, www.felixtsao.com

­I had always thought my family was small, but it turns out a great deal more of us exist than I had been aware of. Thanks to recent advances in DNA sequencing, all kinds of family secrets have been coming to light lately.

Mom, you can relax. I’m not going to talk about the surprise siblings, misplaced offspring, wayward uncles, long-lost cousins or mystery parents.

No, the revelations are even more intimate.

Take Nature Boy, for instance. (Please.) Every time he walks through the door, our household occupancy jumps by hundreds of trillions.

Read the rest of this post in the Victoria Times Colon-ist...

And if you’re really interested, browse through the following:

• The Human Microbiome Project
• American Gut Project
• Origins of the human gut microbiome
• The belly-button project
• Probiotics and you, by Jason Tetro, Huffington Post
• Gut bacteria and weight gain, by Denise Grady, NY Times
• The human gut viome
• Disrupting Gut Microbiota Might Raise Risk for Chronic Diseases
• Early life antibiotic-driven changes in microbiota enhance susceptibility to allergic asthma