The microbiomes revolution:

Medicine of humans, medicine of the soils and oceans. 

Understanding microbiomes to preserve soil oceans and human health in a shared destiny.

The Impact

The impact of the human microbiome on human health has now been increasingly recognized. However, the connections and interactions between human, soil and oceans microbiomes are still underappreciated. 

Ancient Dominance: Bacteria’s 4.2-Billion-Year Reign Far Outlasts Humanity

Microorganisms and bacteria in particular, have occupied the earth for approximately 4.2 billion years, multicellular organisms for approximately 600 million years and humans a mere two hundred thousand years a miniscule fraction of​ bacteria lifetime on earth​.

Bacteria Reign: Earth’s 70-Gigaton Microbial Giants Dwarf Humanity’s Biomass   ​ 

Today bacteria alone represent an estimated biomass of 70 gigatons or 1200 times the 0.06 gigatons representing the weight of eight and a half billion humans. This disproportion illustrates the​ key ​ role of bacteria in the natural world from two and half mile below the surface of the earth to the upper reaches of the atmosphere, from the​     ​oceans to the geysers, the dry valleys of Aantarctica and the most inhospitable deserts such as the Atacama.  

Survival

Over their very long history bacteria​l colonies​ adapted to every possible environment and colonized every living organism. Their remarkable resilience may be the result of life principles tested over the eons during which ​ microorganisms successfully met enough challenges to survive to the present. 

While invisible to the naked eye their biomass influences life on earth at every level. 

The invisible is enormous and omnipresent. ​​​ 

​​The eighteenth and nineteen centuries saw the discovery of microorganisms, the twentieth the beginning of their characterization. The twenty first century using new means inconceivable a few decades ago open​     ​ endless possibilities to explore the complex relations between bacteria and all forms of life 

We need a novel vision ​​ofthe impact of these bacterial communities on the oceans, the soils and human health. Indeed, bacteria should be viewed as our allies and can offer concrete solutions to the major environmental challenges by establishing new agricultural practices that respect the quality of our nutrition and environment. We are on the brink of a true medical revolution that will only take place if it is based on a genuinely transdisciplinary approach and on massive investment commensurate with these health and environmental challenges. 

We are living in a critical moment that will have a major impact on ​​the future of humanity. We are emerging from ​​a century of intensive agricultural production, based on monoculture, which aimed to meet the rapid increase in population. These efforts were justified. Malnutrition remains a major issue, and the quantity of food is an essential objective. But we are also facing a loss of understanding regarding the fundamentals of a healthy diet. Thus, we have to confront undernutrition in poor countries, as well as among poor populations in so-called “developed” countries. Simultaneously, we have to address the harmful effects of diets that harm health in economically wealthy countries—diets whose model we are transmitting to poorer nations. 

To address these challenges, it is crucial​​ not to forget that soils and their microbiomes offer us possibilities that remain largely untapped. In a way, the soil is the digestive systems of the earth! Agriculture begins with the soil, and its long-term productivity depends on soil bacteria. To benefit from this, we must use these bacterial communities as allies. The complexity, diversity, and symbiotic relationships within microbiomes are such that we are still far from understanding all the systems that govern their communities. 

This blog intends to offer a broad and truly transdisciplinary view to these major challenges. 

Each two weeks we will provide a short op/ed, to stimulate discussions. 

We will also provide an updated library of many articles on this topic.