E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSLive Poll
What kind of belly button do you have?
A group of scientists at North Carolina State University is taking navel-gazing to another level.
Jiri Hulcr and his colleagues at the Raleigh, N.C., school recently launched the Belly Button Biodiversity project as a fun way to interest people in microbiology and teach them about the bacteria that's found on skin.
Although the belly button is an unusual place to conduct research, in many ways it's ideal digs for germs.
"The belly button is protected, making it a safe haven for normal skin microbes," says Hulcr, a postdoctoral research associate who leads the project.
Another plus is that few people wash this area with soap. "That's great for bacteria," explains Hulcr, because you get more interesting things growing there. (So far, they've found lots of Staphylococcus epidermidis, which is the most common bacteria found on skin -- but also bright yellow colonies of Micrococcus luteus, and gooey globs of Pseudomonas.)
A third advantage is that the "belly button doesn't produce any special secretions or oils, such as other protected body parts, such as the nose or armpit," Hulcr says. "So the microflora inside the belly button is fairly representative of the rest of the body."
And it's easily accessible: To get a sample, researchers hand each subject a sterile long cotton swab. You're asked to turn it around in your navel three times and place the swab in a vial. Scientists grow the bacteria in a culture and once they become "big and chunky enough" they're photographed. Participants are given a sample number to view their bacteria online.
Volunteers also submit information about how often they wash their belly buttons, whether they have an "innie" or an "outie," as well as their age, sex, ethnicity, and where they grew up.
"People are always surprised at how much stuff grows from even this superficial sample," Hulcr says, adding that a moderately disgusting discovery their project has made was that "very few people wash their belly button with soap."
In the nearly 500 samples collected since the project began in February, Hulcr says they've found the diversity of microbes you would expect to see on skin -- "almost universally bacteria, some molds and fungi, but not as many yeast as anticipated." (Finding yeast on skin is quite common.)
"We're probably the only ones studying human belly buttons on such a large scale," admits Hulcr. He hopes to collect thousands of swabs and eventually sequence a sampling of the bacterial DNA to identify each type -- and determine if there are noticeable differences between men and women, for example, or based on how often you clean your navel.
We conclude with a roundup of some random belly button trivia:
- "Outies" are rare. Only 4 percent of project participants so far have them. (They don't have any different microbes, though.)
- An Austrian chemist has suggested that people with hairier bellies collect more navel "lint."
- Your belly button is a "lint" trap for fabric fibers from clothing as well as dead skin, fat, sweat and dust.
- It's possible to have navel melanoma. Notice the size and shape of any mole you have there.
- Research suggests the "ideal female belly button" is small and T-shaped. Less attractive navels are horizontal, protruding ("outies"), or have weird shapes.
Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.
Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.
Leave a Comment:
Don't you people have more interesting things to gaze at? I for one prefer watching the autumn leaves getting all hue of red and crimson, in Alaska. I am also fond of watching the azzurre cloud-billowing skies, the rugged heath and headland, as well as the misty blue mountain chains surrounding Denali. Bacteria is the last thing I watch, to be sure. Why? Because in this life there isn't time to watch everything! You need to prioritize. I watch the more beautiful things that remind me of God, first!
well obviously you've never been to NC State, or NC for that matter. North Carolina has quickly become a hub for scientific innovation, we have three top universities (UNC, Duke, State) that feed one of the biggest biotech/pharma parks in the world. Research like this has implications in human health, animal health, and environmental health. We take pride in the fact that the microbial world we study helps support your beautiful autumn leaves and pristine landscape. For me, watching bacteria grow, adapt, and evolve reminds me of God's work more than the macro world does...much of the macro world has already been explained, much of the micro world remains a mystery. These little critters have amazing metabolism, can survive extreme environments, and produce some very beautiful sights if you know what you're looking at! Not to mention they are one of the most abundant life forms on the planet (second only to viruses, which may or may not be considered "alive") and our knowledge is only beginning to scratch the surface. If you can't appreciate that, then go back to your log cabin in the woods...which by the way, is covered in bacteria.
Be thankful that there ARE people that spend time studying bacteria. Such people are a large part of the reason that most people get over 70 years to gaze at beautiful mountains, autumn leaves, and blue skies.
I guess the next study will be "dingleberry" bacteria.
Were these studies done at the Navel Academy?
I have nothing scientific to say here, just this....A little soap, on the finger, in the belly button...rinse! It's that simple folks!
The thing people need to realize is that bacteria is everywhere. Regardless of how much you wash, rinse and repeat, there will always be something growing. It is IMPOSSIBLE to remove every single organism on your skin and still live to tell about it. It is a matter of fact. The problems arise when they don't wash, rinse and repeat.
If you don't wash it, you'll possible risk losing it: behind your ears, your butt crack, your groin, your foreskin, between your teeth. They all get disgustingly dirty if you don't clean it. No big deal though!
I would just like to reiterate my favorite graph in this post (bolding mine, obvs):
People are gross.
You're right, and it only takes a few seconds to wash it, for heaven's sake! I used to have a problem with anything touching my belly button, including my finger. It felt like rubbing chalk on a chlakboard to me, but when I saw how gross my belly button got, I quickly got over it!
I might add, if I can wash it, anyone can, because that chalkboard feeling used to freak me out.
Like Craig Ferguson says, "If you don't wash it, you'll lose it." Of course he was talking about foreskin but same idea!
OR nurses who frequently have to go "navel diving" while prepping the abdomen for surgery refer to the more hearty harvests as "potatoes". Yes, please clean your navels.
This comment is wonderfully revolting.
Your Stimulus Tax Dollars At work.... forget the unemployed workers, we need to keep the academics happy
and where did you dig up that nugget? Uneducated morons like you hate the academic community and hence make these stupid comments. BTW, it is because of the academic community that you have the internet and are posting these messages here.
Unless you live in NC or paid tuition at NC State, your money did not go anywhere close to funding this research...sorry....you are either ignorant or a complete joke if you think otherwise.
Aren't these studies funded by state grants? Isn't there any thing else institutions can find to study.
State's all across the country are crying poor, tuition is rising....and this? No wonder some college grads can't find a job. Better to teach "pole dancing"...they make money....lol
What a stupid thing to say. I guess it's the New Republican Way to keep everyone as stupid and uninformed as humanly possible (so the lords can manage their serfs/cattle easier). As for the other thread comments: 1) university scientists are (poorly-paid, very hard working, with giant student loans) American workers, 2) look up the Dunning-Kruger effect - because you're too stupid to be able to comment rationally; 3) the funding is federal, and 3) no where near $100 million (more like $1 million, half of which the university takes as indirects). This article does not really explain at all what the point of the study is (which is typical - the press almost never gets anything right when reporting on science), and if they did the 94% of Americans that are scientifically illiterate wouldn't really get it anyway. Of course, that doesn't mean they won't reap the benefits of the work, or an American company won't make money off the findings...
Can you dig it? I knew that you could!
Interesting research! I've always had to keep an eye on my belly button bacteria! Since I was a baby, I've had an unusually deep belly button. (No...it's not fat!) As a kid, when others were showing their double jointed oddities, I was showing off by sticking my finger in my belly button to show how deep it was.
I love learning little things like what this research shows. :P
Can you dig it? I knew that you could!
I assume only the inies have this problem.
If you bothered to read the article in its entirety, there is a quote that states that, "although 4 per cent of the test subjects have outies, they don't have any different microbes."
When I was VERY pregnant with my first child, I pulled a huge, cone-shaped piece of gunk out of my navel. 'Twas gross! I assume that gunk had been collecting all my life -- I had no idea!
I think it could've been the great amounts of lotion accumulated over time during pregnancy. Many women usually apply lots of stuff on their bellies to keep them "stretch-marks free"... That and (in some cases, as this article confirms) the fact that people don't really clean that area LOL
I found that after having laparoscopic surgery which entailed a small incision at my belly button, that the soap and water did not drain out of there as well as it used to. The moisture caused problems, so now I not only have to wash in there but make sure I dry it well too! I wonder how much fungus the study came up with?
With all that is wrong in America and the world, this is what we study?
exactly what a waste most people know that you should clean your entire body when you wash, look at the money we spend on our ears. But did we really need to spend money on a study........it would have been much better spent maybe giving water to those that need or food to those who haven't eaten. I am also convinced that on any given day they (the MDs and experts) can find that just about anything that we do, eat, dont wash properly, or stand near will soon or one day get us sick.........Im sick just talking about this
1) You really don't understand what the point is, or why it was funded, 2) it's one study, and 3) part of the point to to try and educate people so they they can begin to understand why. You might clue in to the fact that if you don't understand the WHY of something, the problem is most likely that YOU are the problem. Look up the Dunning-Kreuger effect.
How much federal funding did this idiotic "study" get? for this we have to trim medicare and SS? HELL NO!
Unless you live in NC or paid tuition at NC State, your money did not go anywhere close to funding this research...sorry....you are either ignorant or a complete joke if you think otherwise.
I live in NC and can't believe my tax dollars paid for this when: We are laying off teachers, have very bad roads and very few jobs.
Again, 1) you obviously have no idea what the study is about, or really the background to get it, 2) the funding of this or any study (or heck all of them collectively for the whole country) is absolutely nothing compared to Social Security or Medicare expendatures on any day of the year. If you are concerned about SS or Medicare, I'd suggest that Mr. North Carolina needs to stop voting for Republicans - as you can see in the news, the House voted to essentially ELIMINATE medicare today... and to remind you, the Republican governor (the one that got in trouble for the mistress) DECLINED stimulus funding specifically designated to REPAIR and maintain the schools in your state (for his personal political gain, no less). REPUBLICANS are also doing their best to EMIMINATE funding for schools and infrastructure (like roads), and to make sure any jobs that are created are lower income than the ones that were lost in the REPUBLICAN produced depression.
What about "outies"?
If they're not careful, they could grow a mutant new "superbellybuttonbug", that will infect and destroy us all! LOL!
What a WONDERFUL way to WASTE tax dollars what a chrock of @!$%#
Please tell me that my tax dollars have nothing to do with this! If the university wants to have a little fun, that's great......but I hope this is not considered serious reasearch that is funded by the Federal Government.
WOW, people are dying all the time from all types of deseases and we HAVE to have a study on BELLY-BUTTON bacteria !!! MONEY WELL SPENT ????????????
I would not be surprised if tax money was used to fund this project. What a waste of time and money. But, really - why don't they just check with the "Naval" Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, I'm sure they have all the answers.
my belly button has never, never been sick
Remember that children's song "Bellybutton, bellybutton, ooooh, my bellybutton"? LOL! Actually I wouldn't mind conducting the research if all the subjects were chicks with nice bellybuttons! I'd make sure the q-tip tickled a little when it went in! Gee, I wonder if buttholes are next?
I'm going to assume that this study was funded by the goverment. Were already hopelessly drowning in debt, why not?
Please don't tell me that we have paid for this garbage with our tax dollars as some grant. Along with the other idiot grant to study if Seagulls are gay.
If so I want to know who approved this so I can make sure they are elected out.
i am pretty sure they publish kind of crap just to rub in our faces the fact that they actually can get away with spending taxpayer dollars on this nonsense. just because they can. and yeah, I want some scientist to post their comment about how important bacteria is and how it will save the planet and we are all uneducated morons if we don't understand why this study is so important. and thanks to them we have the internet. seriously? I think this research is just an experiment being conducted as a part of a larger, and much more important (taxpayer funded i am sure) reseach project to see how easily people can be antagonized.
Is the research project leader, by any chance, Larry the cable guy? It would be more constructive to study what grows in our ear canals and how it affects us.
This was an interesting read... kind of like the stuff I read when on the crapper.