Which microbes are the Old Friends?
Candidates include certain gut and environmental taxa. A shopping list is not settled.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Familiarity70
Medical weight50
Benefit60
Risk35
Research58
Live debate65
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Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
Quick answers
Where should I start with Hygiene and balance?
Read Identity → How they live → Body & health, then use compare rails.
Is this page advice for Hygiene and balance?
Public-health education — not a care plan, prescription, or outbreak briefing.
What does the local lens add?
It names everyday desks for Change & defence before English norms look universal.
Are the scores a ranking of Hygiene and balance?
No — editorial 0–100 browsing aids inside this atlas only.
How do I compare Hygiene and balance to neighbours?
Use related cards and best-of / quiz rails after the first three chapters.
Which chapter is densest?
How they live and Body & health carry mechanisms; skim Identity first.
Researchers still argue which organisms train regulation and whether urban design can supply them safely.
Helminth therapy trials exist in clinics. They are not a backyard project.
Open questions
Can cities design immune-friendly green space?
Biodiversity around homes is studied. Causality is still being unpacked.
Do C-section and formula change set-points?
They change early colonizers. Outcomes vary and are not a verdict on needed surgery.
Is there a safe worm therapy?
Clinical trials test regulated products. Do not import parasites as self-care.
How do we talk without anti-vax capture?
Separate sanitation wins from missing-partner science in every sentence.
The frontier is safer diversity, not nostalgia for cholera.
Keep exploring
More in Change & defence
Mutation and variants
Populations of genomes, not cartoon villains — RNA viruses copy sloppily, and public-health names track clusters that spread.
Familiarity 92Antibiotic resistance
A shared drug budget under selection in hospitals, farms and wastewater — stewardship, not a lab manual.
Familiarity 85Vaccines and immunity
Antibodies, memory cells and community arithmetic — conceptual, not a prescription and not an anti-vaccine tract.
Familiarity 94Biofilms
Surface cities of microbes — plaque and catheters explain persistence, without a grow-your-own kit.
Familiarity 38Horizontal gene transfer
Sideways DNA traffic — conjugation, transduction, transformation as names and history, not protocols.
Familiarity 45