Life On Us

Life On Us

An extraordinary journey into the human body reveals how we are all shared, shaped and kept alive by the bugs that live on us and inside us.

  • Your Private Wildlife

    We are not alone. We are home to a trillion cells that are not our own. On us live bacteria, fungi, worms, lice and mites that we carry throughout our lives. To say that we are in a minority in our own body is an understatement. They have been our constant evolutionary companions and define who we are. Bugs are the hidden force behind our health, our skin colour and even our behaviour. Undeniably - bugs are us.

  • Superhuman

    Our health, body shape, mood and even our evolution are determined by the unseen life forms that swarm throughout our bodies. There are worms in your bowels, bacteria in your mouth, fungi in your lungs and viruses in your DNA. The combined genetic information of all these bugs is 150 times greater than our own genes. This collective menagerie is called the micro-biome, and in a very real sense, it is the making of us all.