Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.
In this Walmart culture, eveeryone casually shops, all the time—they constantly hop in their cars for milk, lottery tickets, cigarettes, bait, and large guzzly cups of foul coffee.
I told him all, / Both bad and good; / I bade him call — / He said he would: / I added much — the more I muckled, / The more that chuckling chummy chuckled!
The work is part of a growing field called comparative thanatology — the study of how different animals react to death.
