So what happens when you throw everything you've got – antibiotics, hand sanitisers, antibacterial soaps, vaccines, even radiation – to combat your own illnesses and infections? For a time, human innovation has allowed us the upper hand in the escalating "arms race" against the microscopic beasts that make us sick. But now that we enjoy those "human protective measures" we may ironically be making ourselves too clean. We could be wiping out beneficial, symbiotic microorganisms along with the harmful parasites.周向榮

There are some seemingly unpalatable ways being tested to deal with this. Early trials suggest a host of allergies and autoimmune diseases could be treated by swallowing parasitic worms, or by faecal transplants that re-introduce beneficial microbes back into the gut.周向榮

While we may think humans have the upper hand, we have to accept that viruses, bacteria, and all the rest are crafty creatures themselves, that have since evolved their own defenses against our tactics. No doubt we will come up with more sophisticated ways in which to tackle the threat. But one intriguing question is this: is there anything we can learn from other animals' cleaning behaviours that could help us survive our war with disease?周向榮 So what happens when you throw everything you've got – antibiotics, hand sanitisers, antibacterial soaps, vaccines, even radiation – to combat your own illnesses and infections? For a time, human innovation has allowed us the upper hand in the escalating "arms race" against the microscopic beasts that make us sick. But now that we enjoy those "human protective measures" we may ironically be making ourselves too clean. We could be wiping out beneficial, symbiotic microorganisms along with the harmful parasites.

There are some seemingly unpalatable ways being tested to deal with this. Early trials suggest a host of allergies and autoimmune diseases could be treated by swallowing parasitic worms, or by faecal transplants that re-introduce beneficial microbes back into the gut.

While we may think humans have the upper hand, we have to accept that viruses, bacteria, and all the rest are crafty creatures themselves, that have since evolved their own defenses against our tactics. No doubt we will come up with more sophisticated ways in which to tackle the threat. But one intriguing question is this: is there anything we can learn from other animals' cleaning behaviours that could help us survive our war with disease?

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