you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 91 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Found the article. (or at least it seems to be, given it studies "60 samples of belly buttons" and finds "2368 phylotypes of bacteria". I don't see anything in this study about "1458 bacteria completely new to science" or anything about the Japanese soil thing.

It's entirely possible I'm looking at the wrong study, but generally, it's a safe assumption that the source for memes like this is a half-remembered telephone game at best.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [+] -31 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    Bacteria aren't classified as species for a reason, discovering new kind isn't terribly remarkable.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 49 points 1 week ago* (1 child)

    I don't know where you're getting the idea that "bacteria aren't claasified as species".

    They definitely, definitely are. That "coli" in "E. coli" is its specific name.

    Streptococcus mutans, for example, the oral bacteria that metabolizes sugar into lactic acid causing dental carries, is kingdom Bacillati, phylum Bacillota, class Bacilli, order Lactobacillales, family Streptococcaceae, and then obviously genus Streptococcus and species S. mutans.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment