Mobile Microbiomes

Published: June 25, 2014, 11 p.m.

b'It\'s not just conversations that we share with our mobiles, but also our bacterial blueprints! According to Oregon scientist James Meadow, every time you interact with your phone you deposit a bug fingerprint unique to you. And this means that our mobiles could actually be used to track how we pick up and exchange microbes with the world around us and even screen doctors and nurses to see who might be carrying potentially harmful bugs.Chris Smith spoke to James Meadow to find out more. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists'