Imagine the excitement if doctors suddenly discovered a new organ in the human body! This is exactly what has happened in the last few years. We now know that, in addition to the lungs, kidneys, brain, liver and heart, we have another organ to consider—the microbiome, or the collection of all the microbes in a particular environment, like in the human body. This new organ is completely different, because it is made of microbes, microscopic organisms, such as bacteria, fungi, and bacteriophages, rather than human cells. Microbes are tiny organisms that include bacteria, a type of microbe. A bacterium is a single cell that can divide to form two cells. One amazing thing about this new organ is that we are born without it. As we are being born, we get bacteria from our mothers and then we continue to add more and more bacteria from the environment, until we have about 1,000 different types of bacteria on and inside our bodies. Bacteria are tiny, but they can multiply very quickly, and within only a few hours, one bacterium can become thousands or even millions of new bacteria.

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