No matter where you go and what you're doing, each of us has a unique aura, or cloud, of bacteria, cell parts, hair and feces that is truly unique. IMAGE: Corbis Study the cloud While the internal microbiome is a thriving microscopic community that breaks down food and helps the body fight disease each of us has an external microbiome, a cloud if you will, that is a veritable cornucopia community of creatures living on the surface of your skin. “In a single centimeter of skin, you can find thousands of bacteria,” says James Meadow, a former University of Oregon researcher and co-author of a paper published Tuesday in the journal PeerJ. In fact, while your DNA determines who you are, the DNA of "non-you" cells is dominate if one were to study the DNA on and around. The "non-you" microbes in a given sample would represent about 98% of the DNA in your microbe cloud. The microbiome cloud is caused by the body... More