Scientific navel gazing discoveries

Apparently, everybody has an ecosystem living in our bellybuttons.

But every one of us is different, and so science wonders: How do our bellybutton ecosystems differ?

The Bellybutton Biodiversity project has set out to catalog life in the navel.

The project, overseen by scientists from North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, has taken a sampling of bellybutton swabs from the researchers as well as from students, science bloggers and others.

The scientists want to teach the world that many bacteria are harmless, helpful and often just hanging around, mooching off your body. The navel is an ideal place for bacteria to thrive because it’s isolated from contamination by random other micro-organisms that come and go via the hands and feet. And most don’t bother to wash it.

The scientists grew their bacteria from hundreds of swab samples and found evidence suggesting that most people’s bellybutton ecosystems are unique. They found 2,368 types of bacteria, with 2,188 present on fewer than 10 percent of the samples.

Images are posted at wildlifeofyourbody.org.

They include a bacillus that produces antibiotic compounds that can kill other bacteria as well as foot fungi, and a type of clostridial bacterium. The latter’s family includes botulism, along with many harmless “bugs.”