Senescent Nerd - Slashdot User

Scientists Say a Dirty Child Is a Healthy Child 331

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday November 24, 2009 @07:07PM from the snack-is-going-to-be-on-the-floor-today dept.

Researchers from the School of Medicine at the University of California have shown that the more germs a child is exposed to, the better their immune system in later life. Their study found that keeping a child's skin too clean impaired the skin's ability to heal itself. From the article: "'These germs are actually good for us,' said Professor Richard Gallo, who led the research. Common bacterial species, known as staphylococci, which can cause inflammation when under the skin, are 'good bacteria' when on the surface, where they can reduce inflammation."

Comment Goofy phylogeny (Score 1) 133

by Senescent Nerd on Thursday May 08, 2008 @11:12AM (#23337888) Attached to: Platypus Genome Decoded

"Their genomic organization was strange and a little unexpected," says Batzer. "It appeared much more bird- and reptile-like than mammalian, even though it is indeed classified as a mammal."

Batzer is one of the researchers. He should know that in the standard evolutionary phylogenetic model, the platypus is no more closely related to birds than we are, since we and platypodes share a common ancestor that existed in the mammalian line after the mammalian line separated from birds.

While it is true that to a human a platypus looks more like a bird than does another human, it is equally true that to a platypus a human looks more like a bird than does another platypus.

And the implication that classifying it as a mammal is a mistake ("even though it is indeed classified as a mammal", rather than "even though it's a mammal") is just silly.

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