Recent revelations about the nature of our gut microbiome are staggeringly sci-fi. We are the host to more living organisms than we ever realized. And they help us in symbiotic ways with a host of bodily functions.

1. Host with the most

2. Jeff McBride
• (also known as Magnus;
born September 11,
1959) is an American
magician. He is known for
his sleight of hand skills
and specializes in the
manipulation of playing
cards, coins, and other
small objects. His stage
performances blend
elements of kabuki, a
Japanese theater form,
with traditional conjuring.

3. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
• McBride has made
numerous television
and documentary
appearances, including
one as a guest star on
Star Trek: Deep Space
Nine in the 1994
episode "Equilibrium",
in the role of Joran
Belar

4. Joran Belar
• Trill musician with a violent temper, who lived
ca. 2264-2285 and was joined to the Dax
symbiont for the last six months of his life. Belar
was accepted into the Trill initiate program and
deemed unsuitable to host a symbiont, but was
joined to Dax nevertheless. At that point Joran
became more confident and "even colder than
usual," according to his brother Yolad, and six
months later Joran Dax killed a doctor with the
Symbiosis Commission who had recommended
that Belar be dropped from the program. He
was caught and the symbiont removed, killing
Joran. The fact that Joran had held the symbiont
successfully for months, despite being declared
unsuitable, threatened to expose the closely
held secret that nearly half the Trill population is
capable of being joined. Rather than risk the
chaos that could ensue, the Symbiosis
Commission altered the official record to cover
up the fact that Joran Belar had been joined,
stating that he was still an initiate in 2285 when
he committed the murder, and was killed trying
to flee the murder scene.

5. Sci Fi
• To cut through the
melodrama: Joran is a
host for another life
form
• Symbiotic relationships
between life forms

6. Human/Alien Relationship
• Humans are
predominantly a “host”
vessel
• We are 10% human;
90% bacteria host
• You have more germs in
your gut right now than
humans that ever lived
on Earth

7. Gut flora
• Gut flora consists of
microorganisms that live
in the digestive tracts of
animals and is the largest
reservoir of human flora.
In this context, gut is
synonymous with
intestinal, and flora with
microbiota and
microflora, the word
microbiome is also in use.

8. 100 trillion
• The human body,
consisting of about 10
trillion cells, carries about
ten times as many
microorganisms in the
intestines. The metabolic
activities performed by
these bacteria resemble
those of an organ, leading
some to liken gut bacteria
to a "forgotten" organ.

9. We are mostly not us
• It is estimated that
these gut flora have
around 100 times as
many genes in
aggregate as there are
in the human genome.

10. Functions
• Carbohydrate fermentation
and absorption
• Trophic effects
• Repression of pathogenic
microbial growth
• Immunity
• Metabolic function
• Preventing allergy
• Preventing inflammatory
bowel disease

11. Human Microbiome Project
The Human Microbiome
Project (HMP) is a United
States National Institutes
of Health initiative with
the goal of identifying and
characterizing the
microorganisms which are
found in association with
both healthy and diseased
humans (i.e. their
microbial flora).

12. Σύν βίωσις
• Symbiosis (from
Ancient Greek σύν
"together" and βίωσις
"living") is close and
often long-term
interaction between
two or more different
biological species.

13. Symbiotic Systems

14. Cooperation
• the process of working or
acting together. In its
simplest form it involves
things working in harmony,
while in its more
complicated forms, it can
involve something as
complex as the inner
workings of a human being
or even the social patterns
of a nation. It is the
opposite of working
separately in competition.