Something amazing hit the news a couple days ago. Researchers have been collecting microbes from brown bear droppings and implanting them in lab mice. The bacteria most present in the bears in summer makes the mice put on loads of fat without impairing glucose tolerance. The bacteria present in the bears in the winter caused the mice to burn fat easily without increasing insulin resistance. (Or at least that’s what it sounded like to me, read the article and be your own judge.)
They are quick to point out that this isn’t some magic bullet for obesity but it could have tremendous implications for several things not the least of which is how our own microbiome affects our metabolism. This is the next wave of amazing science which forces me to point out that science is, first and foremost, the study of what we know while religion is the acceptance of what we do not know. This is super-important because whenever I try to talk about something new and amazing in science I am met with people saying “Yeah, those scientists are always wrong. They never know what’s right.” That’s not the freaking point, you religious zealots. If the sky opened up tomorrow and the unquestionable voice of God spoke to each and every one of us saying “Elijah was the Messiah and Jesus just a prophet” What the f*&ck would you do? What would you do to your bibles and your pastors/priests? You’d shit yourselves is what you’d do.
But if, tomorrow, some Ukrainian kid discovers gravitons and can prove empirically how our TV screens has mass but the photons which show us the images do not, we’ll shrug it off because our TVs still work. Right?
The point is: having unraveled the “genome” we are discovering new genetic mechanisms every day, the next frontier is the “biome” and it is exposing us to a world of understanding unrivalled except by magic. “Look upon my works, ye, mighty and despair.”
What a great time to be alive.