Wanna Sniff Some Cheese Made From Human Microbes?
LatestFeeling a little peckish? Well, you won’t after reading this. NPR reports that UCLA microbiologist Christina Agapakis and artist Sissel Tolaas have teamed up “to create cheese
using the microbes that grow on their skin.” We understand if you need a minute.
See, what you really need to make cheese is milk, the bacteria Lactobacillus (to make it go bad) and yeast (to age the resulting clumps and give it a particular taste). But it turns out you could just as easily collect the necessary bacteria and yeast from our own bodies. So the pair harvested some from sources including the bellybutton of food writer Michael Pollan and someone else’s feet, then got cooking.