The Microbes Among Us

On this week’s episode of The Open Mind, we welcome Rob Dunn, author of “Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel, Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live.” Rob Dunn is a professor in the Department of Applied Ecology at North Carolina State University and in the Natural History Museum of Denmark at the University of Copenhagen. He is the author of five previous books including “Never Out of Season” and “Every Living Thing,” Dunn lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. “In the process of sanitizing our own homes,” Dunn reveals in “Never Home Alone,” “we"ve created a playground of revolution for bacteria and parasites in our not very tranquil homes.”  Rob’s discovery of 200,000 new species living incognito in our bedrooms, kitchens, living areas, bathrooms, basements, attics, astounds. Some can kill. Some are benign and some may actually help us enhance our health, but most of them, if not all of them, until Rob’s investigation, were unknown to us. Together, we discuss these organisms, how we combat them and how we need them.