Science

A major cause of obesity may be hiding in your gut

One day, you might be able to eat microbes — yes, microbes — to help you lose weight.

Science

For healthier buildings, just add bacteria?

Just like a human being, a house or office has its own microbiome, with good and bad microorganisms. One researcher has a targeted idea: to customize our spaces with the right microbes.

Science

How your microbes influence your love life

Science writer Sonia Shah explains why it’s really not your fault you’re attracted to that terrible person.

Science

Can your biome make you fat?

Is there a correlation between your biome and your BMI? In a radical new book, “Why Diets Make Us Fat,” neuroscientist Sandra Aabodt sheds much-needed light on this tangled, cryptic relationship.

Rob Knight | ideas.ted.com
Science

How microbes define, shape — and might even heal us

In this excerpt from his TED Book, microbial researcher Rob Knight shares his — and other scientists’ — work to understand the human microbiome — and the key diseases in which it now seems that microbes may play a part, including inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, and allergies and asthma.