Stick your tongue out

‘Stick Out Your Tongue’ (‘Saca la Lengua’) is a citizen’s science project that aims to study the mouth’s microbiome and its possible relationship with our environmental characteristics and lifestyle. Recent scientific studies have highlighted the importance of the set of micro-organisms that live in our bodies, our “human microbiome”, in determining both health and illnesses. In reality, we have more bacteria cells in our bodies than human cells. It is logical that these microorganisms have an enormous influence on us, ranging from protecting us from certain illnesses, helping our digestion, causing diseases (either directly or indirectly), and determining our preferences, such as taste. Scientists are now beginning to look into this and in fact have already developed therapies involving transplanting a “healthy” faecal microbiome into patients to treat intestinal infections.