Learning and Microbes Lets start from a simple fact Each person shelters about 100 trillion microbes But scientists cannot rear a vast majority of these bacteria in their labs to identify them and learn their characteristics. The implication is staggering.
For example, Are people, as a result of their microbe hosting difference, require, favor, or demand different ways of learning? Do our brains influenced in any way by this difference?
In the early 1900s, scientists discovered that each person belonged to one of four blood types. Now they have discovered a new way to classify humanity: by bacteria. Each human being is host to thousands of different species of microbes. Yet a group of scientists now report just three distinct ecosystems in the guts of people they have studied.
Its an important advance, said Rob Knight, a biologist at the University of Colorado, who was not involved in the research. Its the first indication that human gut ecosystems may fall into distinct types.
The researchers, led by Peer Bork of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, found no link between what they called enterotypes and the ethnic background of the European, American and Japanese subjects they studied.
Nor could they find a connection to sex, weight, health or age. They are now exploring other explanations. One possibility is that the guts, or intestines, of infants are randomly colonized by different pioneering species of microbes. The microbes alter the gut so that only certain species can follow them.
Whatever the cause of the different enterotypes, they may end up having discrete effects on peoples health. Gut microbes aid in food digestion and synthesize vitamins, using enzymes our own cells cannot make.
Dr. Bork and his colleagues have found that each of the types makes a unique balance of these enzymes. Enterotype 1 produces more enzymes for making vitamin B7 , for example, and Enterotype 2 more enzymes for vitamin B1 .
The discovery of the blood types A, B, AB and O had a major effect on how doctors practice medicine. They could limit the chances that a patients body would reject a blood transfusion by making sure the donated blood was of a matching type. The discovery of enterotypes could someday lead to medical applications of its own, but they would be far down the road.
Some things are pretty obvious already, Dr. Bork said. Doctors might be able to tailor diets or drug prescriptions to suit peoples enterotypes, for example.
Or, he speculated, doctors might be able to use enterotypes to find alternatives to antibiotics, which are becoming increasingly ineffective. Instead of trying to wipe out disease-causing bacteria that have disrupted the ecological balance of the gut, they could try to provide reinforcements for the good bacteria. Youd try to restore the type you had before, he said.
Dr. Bork notes that more testing is necessary. Researchers will need to search for enterotypes in people from African, Chinese and other ethnic origins. He also notes that so far, all the subjects come from industrial nations, and thus eat similar foods. This is a shortcoming, he said. We dont have remote villages.
考生必读:雅思口语考试的3条注意事项
如何利用外部因素搞定雅思阅读生僻词
雅思听力8分以上的10个秘诀整理
对症下药提高雅思听力反应速度
雅思听力八大场景的常用词汇整理
突破雅思阅读七大题型的答题技巧
雅思备考:高效备考雅思阅读的经验分享
揭秘雅思听力备考的13个关键点
盘点雅思口语话题三个部分的展开方法
5个方法快速提高雅思写作能力
深层解析:雅思听力高分备考的五大策略
长期备考“雅思阅读”的规划方法
打造雅思口语高分的超详细备考策略
备考雅思阅读必不可少的四大技能介绍
雅思口语高分句型的套用技巧
详解:雅思阅读答题的四个步骤
五技巧助你打造雅思口语高分
雅思阅读:如何保持良好的阅读习惯
雅思口语提升方法:听写模仿和重复
“雅思口语”三个部分的答题要点
雅思口语:你还在还说I don't know吗?
如何避免雅思听力中的三大错误
雅思大写作9分范文点评整理
考前一个月突击雅思更有效果
雅思写作经典高分开头段
雅思阅读分层技巧的五大要点
“烤鸭”必读:7大雅思口语满分技巧
雅思听力中的四大替换原则介绍
雅思口语五大制胜法宝点拨
总结:雅思阅读考试的十个特点
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