How long can gut microbiomes survive after the host is dead? Wouldn’t a dead host essentially mean near 100% fatality for the gut microbiome meaning that anybody killed by a Thanos snap would also mean a 100% kill rate of their gut bacteria, leaving any survivors to basically keep all 100% of their gut bacteria?
Well the implication in-universe is that the actual snap was killing 50% of all life, not any death afterwards. If we’re counting bacterial life as individual living beings in this 50%, then it shouldn’t matter whether the host itself got snapped or not, since the bacteria are “separate” and would be left behind after a snap…
Even better, your microbiome covers your entire body (anything exposed to air) and into any organs that are part of the waste processing system.
So briefly after the snap you would see a vague outline of the creature, with a well defined digestive tract (mouth to anus), eyes, nose, ears, sinus system, and bladder. Because bacteria, viruses, and fungi are all quite small, the cluster of gut organisms would probably fall, and the rest would drift away. Imagine being in a crowded space and just breathing in all those bacteria, viruses, and fungi… 🤮 I bet a lot of people would die from infections.
If the creature had any parasitic infections, like a tapeworm, that could also be left behind.
Right so then couldn’t it follow that human survivors may have no impact on their gut bacteria? If there are only two people and their microbiomes, and the snap kills 1 person and their entire microbiome, then the surviving person would have no or microscopically small impact on their bacteria assuming an even distribution of bacteria across the two people. Basically the OOP is assuming that of the people that died, half of their bacteria would survive, impacting survivors’ microbiomes, rather than assuming 100% of bacteria would die with their hosts, leaving the surviving population’s bacteria intact.
How long can gut microbiomes survive after the host is dead? Wouldn’t a dead host essentially mean near 100% fatality for the gut microbiome meaning that anybody killed by a Thanos snap would also mean a 100% kill rate of their gut bacteria, leaving any survivors to basically keep all 100% of their gut bacteria?
Well the implication in-universe is that the actual snap was killing 50% of all life, not any death afterwards. If we’re counting bacterial life as individual living beings in this 50%, then it shouldn’t matter whether the host itself got snapped or not, since the bacteria are “separate” and would be left behind after a snap…
Does this mean that for every human that disappeared there should have been massive piles of bacteria and shit left where they were last standing
That’s the dust you see floating away when someone gets snapped.
Even better, your microbiome covers your entire body (anything exposed to air) and into any organs that are part of the waste processing system.
So briefly after the snap you would see a vague outline of the creature, with a well defined digestive tract (mouth to anus), eyes, nose, ears, sinus system, and bladder. Because bacteria, viruses, and fungi are all quite small, the cluster of gut organisms would probably fall, and the rest would drift away. Imagine being in a crowded space and just breathing in all those bacteria, viruses, and fungi… 🤮 I bet a lot of people would die from infections.
If the creature had any parasitic infections, like a tapeworm, that could also be left behind.
Don’t forget lice!
Eyelash mites that we all have
Right so then couldn’t it follow that human survivors may have no impact on their gut bacteria? If there are only two people and their microbiomes, and the snap kills 1 person and their entire microbiome, then the surviving person would have no or microscopically small impact on their bacteria assuming an even distribution of bacteria across the two people. Basically the OOP is assuming that of the people that died, half of their bacteria would survive, impacting survivors’ microbiomes, rather than assuming 100% of bacteria would die with their hosts, leaving the surviving population’s bacteria intact.
Well yeah, but what about planes? If the pilots died I’m pretty sure that’s a whole plane of dead people.