‘A lack of a diverse microbiome can have a serious impact on our health’ (Photo: Wander women collective/Getty Images) Evolutionary biologists have long been confused by one particular question: why do humans have sex ? 200 million years ago, when organisms were populating the planet, they multiplied easily and quickly, without the need for another partner. But then came copulation.
Dr James Kinross, lecturer of colorectal surgery at Imperial College and currently leading research into how the microbiome causes chronic diseases, offers a theory. In his new book, The Dark Matter: The New Science of Microbiome , he takes us on an exploration of the body’s most intricate workings and its ecosystem of sensitive bugs.
He believes we have been ignoring their impact on the body for too long. “Traditional science would study one bug or one protein, but with the study of microbiome , we have to study whole communities in the body,” he says. “And most of our understanding of those communities is missing.”
Understanding these ecosystems could be compared to space discovery. “It’s a really complex problem and in fact, the problem is so complex, that even in an age of supercomputing and AI, there are some things that may just not be knowable,” says Kinross. That’s because as soon as the microbiome is taken out of the body, these bugs alter their movements and behaviour. “Accessing these microbes is very difficult and doing it repeatedly is very, very difficult.” Read Next
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But back to sex. “There are lots of theories about why some species of animals broke away from asexual reproduction, which is extremely efficient, and very effective. Why did we instead develop to have sex, which is slow, and also high risk?” says Kinross.
He believes we should blame our bugs. “One leading theory is that sharing microbiomes during sex protects us against parasitic infections and pathogens,” says Kinross. In a single, 10-second kiss, we can share as many as 80 million microbes. And that is just in the mouth. The […]
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