Bugged

摘要

As for the one sitting on my kitehen countertop in Oakland, California, well, )onathan Eisen certainly likes it. "That's cool," says the University of California at Davis microbiologist, lifting the tiny aluminum toy-with huge eyes and delicate clawlike front legs-off the cold marble. He sets it down only when something even smaller, a fruit fly, buzzes past. "Look," he says admiringly, head cocked to my ceiling, "you have drosophilia." Eisen is a tall guy in his 40s with a mountain-man beard, and he has shown up at my home wearing a T-shirt with sparkly-pink block lettering that reads: "Ask me about fecal transplants." He's a firm believer that human health depends on bugs-not the six-legged variety, but the microbes that populate our guts and the environments in which we live, work, and play. Eisen explains that every time I open my door, a blast of air that has woven through the surrounding tree canopy carries microbes into my house-as do Amazon packages, pets, and muddy feet.