Navel Gazing
Scientists are contemplating the navel. What they've found may be surprising.
A program called the Belly Button Biodiversity Project has sampled 95 people, including science blogger Carl Zimmer, and found more than 1,400 types of bacteria.
Some have never been seen on the human body before. Some have never been seen on dry land before. Some have never been seen before, and researchers are struggling to classify them.
The belly button is a ntural gathering place for bacteria, because it's protected from the elements and little noticed -- thus seldom thoroughly cleaned -- by its owner. The project members say these bacteria are not harmful, and in fact may protect the body.