What your smartphone says about your health Add it to the list of things your smartphone knows about you. Your mobile device reflects your personal bacterial “blueprint, meaning it can reveal the microorganisms you’re harboring on your hands. Researchers looked at the phones of 17 people and found that 82% of the most common bacteria on participants’ fingers were also found on their phones. The researchers say further understanding of this link could have important public health implications. “Mobile phones can potentially be a non-invasive way to track environmental microbial exposure over time and space, and inform how we exchange human microbiota with our immediate surroundings,” the study authors write. It’s important to note, however, that the study’s sample size was very small and only looked at phones with touchscreens.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 05:25:06 +0000