William Atkins
Friday, 07 November 2008 20:10
Science -
Health
Page 1 of 3
A University of Colorado study has found that the palms of women’s hands are germier than the palms of men’s hands. The average female palm had about 150 different species of bacteria on it, much more than previously estimated by scientistst. Oh, gross!
The Colorado researchers studied 102 human palms on 51 human participants (from the hands of undergraduate students after taking their tests) and found, in all, about 4,700 different species of bacteria.
They analyzed these species by using gene-sequencing techniques. The DNA of the bacteria showed around 332,000 gene sequences, which was about one hundred times more numerous than what was found in previous bacterial studies on the human skin.
The findings were surprising to the researchers, and will probably be equally surprising to you.
Of the 4,700 different bacterial species, only five of them were found on all 51 human subjects.
Of the bacterial species, only 13% were found on any two palms (even the palms of the same person).
On average, the right hand palm contained different bacterial species than the left hand.
More conclusions appear on page two.
