graphic of bodies with microbes inside of them

More than Half Your Body is Not Human

James Gallagher, BBC

Human cells make up only 43% of the body’s total cell count. The rest are microscopic colonists. Understanding this hidden half of ourselves – our microbiome – is rapidly transforming understanding of diseases from allergy to Parkinson’s.


The Status Syndrome

How Social Standing Affects Our Health and Longevity

Michael Marmot

In this seminal study, the renowned British epidemiologist Michael Marmot shows that the lower in a socioeconomic hierarchy a person is ranked, the worse is that person’s health—a maxim that holds for almost any disease or health risk factor. Those who stand higher up on the ladder of life are always healthier than those even a few steps below. It’s not poverty that makes the difference, says Marmot, but inequality—where one stands in the hierarchy.


In the series



Further Reading