9 Mind-Blowing Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Yourself

5. There Is More Bacterial Life Inside You Than Human

We are practically walking petri dishes, so as much as you anti-bac your hands 'til they're raw and dislocate your neck to avoid being in the firing line of a sneezer on the train, the truth is you're absolutely crammed with bacteria. Enough to fill a half-gallon jug (just over a two-litre pop bottle), and we start collecting it the moment we're in the womb. You've probably seen the endless array of yoghurts promoting "friendly" bacteria, and that's because they really do keep our gut and immune systems healthy.

Your bellybutton alone contains a bacterial ecosystem the size of an entire rainforest. A group of scientists in North Carolina once swabbed 60 bellybuttons; discovering a total of 2,367 species of bacteria in total. Half of these bacteria were actually new to science; some never been seen before, and, how€™s this for a gross fact €“ one man's belly button €œharboured a bacterium that had previously been found only in soil from Japan,€ where the dude had never been in his life. Impressive.