We're a curious bunch, us humans. We want answers to everything, even if those answers are going to make us die a little inside. You know the age old phrase: "Don't want the answer, don't ask the question'. Well, we're asking those questions. Most of us are aware of the disgusting things that affect our every day life: the majority of the population are all a bit neurotic and germ-obsessed, bombarded with TV shows like 'What's In Your Food?', 'Monsters Inside Of Me' and a sea of horrifying "scientific" (freak show) programmes. What you don't think about is how much you interact with gross things on a day to day basis. You might not think a goose can kill you, and you definitely don't believe your mind can be read; but if you don't ask these crazy things, how do you really know? It's been an emotional journey discovering this stuff. We've developed highly irrational OCD: all the door handles in the WhatCulture office have been blasted with bleach of the highest solution, we've stopped breathing for fear of ingesting spiders and we're never going outside again. Ah, how we dream of blissful ignorance once more. Warning in advance - once you know these things, everything changes. Prepare to be grossed out, haunted and equally bemused with these brain-boggling questions and ass-clenching answers...
10. What Is Living In My Belly Button?
A group of scientists in North Carolina swabbed 60 belly buttons and were amazed to discover they were just like snowflakes and fingerprints - totally unique to each individual. Only, not as pretty. Absolutely gross, in fact. In the array of buttons swabbed, a total of 2,367 species of bacteria were found. Half of these bacteria were actually new to science; some never been seen before: which means we are breeding new icky lifeforms in our little navel pieces. And how's this for a grim fact - one person's belly button "harboured a bacterium that had previously been found only in soil from Japan," where the man had never been in his life. That's grimly impressive. The navel-gazers list the results on their impeccably named website WildLifeOfYourBody.org. Gone are the days we can be blissfully ignorant to the freakish portal of which we were once connected to our mothers: the Internet, belly enthusiasts and we science dweebs at WhatCulture are here to make sure you're fully aware and sickened by your own fluffy hole. Thank us later.
