Why getting dirty is the new clean | Jack Gilbert | TEDxNaperville

Your body has about 3 pounds of bacteria living in it. Learn just what that means from one of Popular Science's 2015 Brilliant 10 scientists of the year.

Jack Gilbert is the group leader for Microbial Ecology in the Biosciences Division at Argonne National Laboratory, whose ongoing research is focused on exploring how microbial communities assemble themselves in natural and man-made environments. Jack develops predictive models that help capture our understanding of ecosystem function mediated by microorganisms, as well as manages the Earth Microbiome Project, which is an ongoing effort to characterize the microbial diversity of our planet and the Hospital Microbiome Project, which is examining how adding patients and staff into a hospital building effects the development of microbial communities and important pathogens.

Jack is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution and Department of Surgery at the University of Chicago, and the Associate Director of the Institute for Genomic and Systems Biology. Finally, he has a joint appointment at the Marine Biological laboratory in Woods Hole.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx