When Emely woke up in the morning, she rolled over in her bed, stretched and took a deep breath with which she inhaled thousands of dust mite particles. She coughed and her eyes started itching a little bit. Damn dust allergy!
She left the bed and got ready for work. In the bus on the way there, somebody a few steps away sneezed. Emely could feel the tiny droplets that left the person’s nose settling on her skin and shuddered. Catching a cold now would be really bad.
As soon as she touched the door handle to her workplace, several strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli und Klebsiella Pneumoniae attached to her skin and traveled with her inside.
On the way to her desk, she stumbled across Peter.
”Hey Peter, Happy Birthday!” She greeted him, ignored the outstretched hand and went for a hug. Not only was it more personal, she was pretty sure that she avoided a significant number of germs that way. Shaking someone’s hand was disgusting.
What she didn’t know was that a handshake had an about 0.019% probability of transferring a pathogen.
The apple she then ate for breakfast was far more dangerous, as several kinds of fungi clung to the outside, just waiting to make the apple start rotting. Emely devoured them with gusto.
It was a long day at work and Emely came home late. But when she entered her apartment, a surprise was waiting for her.
”Hello, my sweetheart”, her boyfriend greeted her, pulling her into a hug. Emely hugged back and they exchanged a passionate kiss – and about 80 million bacteria.
Sources:
Dust Allergy
In the cloud: How coughs and sneezes float farther than you think
BACTERIAL CONTAMINATION OF DOOR HANDLES/KNOBS
Improbable research: a handy guide to passing on pathogens
Major Pathogens of Post-Harvested Fruits and Vegetables
Shaping the oral microbiota through intimate kissing
Got a scientific topic which you want to see as a story? Leave me a comment!
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In my house is living more than 5 billions creatures :D
Do they pay rent? If not make them
you're funny :D
Have them pay you in Steem.
I wish I can in SP, wow man, I just sent you a message on chat few minutes ago :D
Ah haven't been on yet.
Haha you have to remember though that the vast, vast majority of microorganisms are good for us!
I never mentioned that they're all bad :P
NEVER GO OUTSIDE
DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING
STOP BREATHING
But seriously, why would the possibility of transferring something via a handshake be so small versus a door handle? That seems odd.
Well the door handle gets handled by every single person who steps into that office. So the microorganisms from everyone accumulates.
I didn't find a percentage for the door handle, just for the handshake. Both are probably similarly harmless
That's crazy. 80 million x 50 kisses, I don't even know how to count that. I really like the way you embedded the info in a story. Really few people know how to do that :D
Very well written story. It is unnerving to think about how many types of bacteria are crawling around on everything lol. Thanks for the great post, following you @suesa
Nice post @suesa , checked your blog page & liked what you have posted..
Pushing the follow button now
Those nasty little critters that we loath, good or bad they are a freaky looking lot..
Our own lymph system will take care of almost anything thrown at it..Providing it is working at optimum levels, along with good kidney filtration..
That being said, we all don't want to catch a cold or have to deal with the flu for a couple of weeks..
The one that I hate the most is public washroom door knobs..Specially when you see people leaving without washing their hands..Ewwww!!!
You don't even have to know about percentages of bacteria on surfaces, armchair thinking itself can reveal the contradictions. So Emely for instance thinks it's okay to touch the door-handle that Peter's hand touched, but not Peter's hand.
Well that's not uncomfortable to imagine at all
Lucky for me, I've always liked Pokemon. Now I see bacteria like pokemon and I want to catch them all!
Very interwst post, thanks for sharing
Nice post dear @suesa.. Im already resteem and upvote you.. Thank very much for share.. Regard. @syahhiran
Fun post! Loved the handshaking figures.
Probably worth mentioning that allergies are caused by our immune system misfiring, as opposed to being caused by microbes.
Good post and good info, thanks
This comment has received a 0.14 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @hamzaoui.