Microbiologists at the United States Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory claim that a unique population of bacteria follows families when they move to a new home. The research team notes that it took less than a day for a family’s new home to have the same bacteria populations as their old home. The findings suggest that analyzing bacteria in a home could predict if a person has lived in a specific location and how recently with a great deal of accuracy.
Science, August 2014