The Explainer

Our microbiome is social like us

Each person and animal has a unique microbiome, the individual microbial ecosystem of the body. It can affect our health and immunity. And scientists are now exploring the idea that the microbiome may be social and that interacting with multiple microbiomes can in some cases be beneficial.

How is the microbiome social?
Just as being near a sick person can potentially lead to catching their disease, scientists have found that good microbes can be passed along as well. A perspective piece published in the journal Cell placed importance on the social microbiome, or the "microbial metacommunity associated with a social network of humans or other animals," and how it could "play a role in individuals' susceptibility to, and resilience against, both communicable and noncommunicable diseases," said The Harvard Gazette.

The human microbiome can affect the immune system, the digestive system and mental health. It is also highly individual and influenced by diet, lifestyle and environment, but social interactions can also play a role. "The host's social environment and interactions are emerging as important factors influencing microbiome composition," said a perspective piece published in Nature Ecology and Evolution. Variation in the microbiome "likely depends on variation in the structure, strength and stability of social connections."

How can it affect disease transmission?
The social microbiome may be playing a larger role in spreading disease than previously thought. "If microbes contributing to disease can be transmitted between individuals, some noncommunicable conditions may in fact have a communicable component," said co-author Rachel Carmody to The Harvard Gazette. This means that even "noncontagious" diseases could still have an element of contagiousness. "While that may be a potentially unsettling thought, socially transmitted microbes may help protect against these conditions, too."

Good microbes may also be contagious. "Social interactions can provide conduits for pathogen transmission, but beneficial microbes are also known to be transmitted through these interactions," co-author Andrew Moeller said to the Gazette. Studies done on mice found that sharing the same space caused microbes to transfer between the animals, which helped improve the response to cancer therapy.

"When we think of factors that affect the microbiome, diet and antibiotics come to mind most readily," said Amar Sarkar, the lead author of both perspective pieces, to the Gazette. "But the fact that our social interactions also affect the microbiome is less well appreciated."

Statistic of the day

7,000: The number of humpback whales that died in the North Pacific Ocean between 2012 and 2021, a study from the Royal Society Open Science found. The deaths were likely due to a yearslong marine heat wave that affected the region, causing a 20% decline in the humpback whale population.
ABC News

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"I don't know how else you can put sprinkles on shit, but we were trying to be the sprinkles on shit."

Kirsty Paterson, who played an Oompa Loompa in a disastrous "Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory Experience" in Glasgow, Scotland, on trying to salvage the event that went viral on social media, in an interview with Vulture

In Depth

What exactly is the role of the DNC and RNC?

This week, after months of speculation, longtime Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel announced she would step down. Her departure has refocused public attention on the inner workings of a core institution in American politics: a major political party's national committee. Like its Democratic counterpart the DNC, the Republican National Committee is the main organ of Republican politics in the U.S.

The responsibilities of both parties' national committees can range from high-level agenda-setting to more granular work, such as fundraising and campaign support across multiple electoral levels.

What are they?
The DNC and RNC are each just one part of their political party's three-part committee structure, working in tandem with what are called Hill committees. These exist to focus specifically on the House and Senate. Essentially, the national committees "look out for their party candidates around the country to support them with things like research, polling [and] money," Political Science Professor Joseph Losco said to Teen Vogue.

Both organizations are made up of associated groups that are designated for more specific activities, such as fundraising or managing the party's conventions. The DNC and RNC are delegates from subsidiary organizations in states and territories across the country.

How do they operate?
The DNC and RNC have been "traditionally dismissed" as merely being "service providers" that give assistance but overall "lack political power," Political Science Professor Boris Heersink said in a 2018 study. In part, that is true, with each committee helping fund their respective candidates, offering IT support and voter enrollment initiatives and generally serving as a unifying "infrastructure institution" across the party, as the DNC's Amanda Brown Lierman said to Teen Vogue.

But the committees are also responsible for establishing their respective party platforms, which are voted on every four years. They help clarify and synchronize candidate messaging across multiple elections.

Most visibly, each committee is responsible for their party's Democratic and Republican National Conventions. At these events, the platforms are officially adopted, and delegates vote on the party's presidential nominee before presenting them to the electorate.

But given their origins as a forum for "party bigwigs [to pick] presidential nominees," CNN's Zachary Wolf asked, is there still a "functional purpose" for these conventions, replete with the pomp and made-for-TV theatrics? Yes, said BallotReady. In addition to the obligatory ratification of platforms and candidates, conventions "give a platform to rising stars in the party and bolster established party leaders."

Good day 📣

… for Monica Lewinsky. The anti-bullying activist and author has been chosen as the new face of the fashion brand Reformation's latest voting campaign. Lewinsky, who came into the public eye in the '90s after an affair with then-President Bill Clinton, will headline the "You've Got the Power" workwear campaign aimed at reminding people of the impact of voting.

Bad day 📉

… for WeightWatchers. Shares in the company dropped by over 25% after Oprah Winfrey's announcement that she would step down from her position on its board of directors after nearly a decade. In a regulatory statement, WeightWatchers said her decision was "not the result of any disagreement." The move comes a year after Winfrey admitted to using an unnamed weight loss drug to lose weight.

Puzzles

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The Week recommends

3 thought-provoking books to read in March

If you are prepping your spring reading list, add these three March titles: a posthumous release, a reimagined classic, and a new book from a groundbreaking thinker.

'Until August' by Gabriel García Márquez (March 12)
Nearly a decade after his death, we are getting a rediscovered novel by the Nobel Prize-winning author. Set in the Caribbean, "Until August" follows a married woman who takes on a new lover whenever she visits her mother's grave.

Best known for "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera," the Colombian writer died in 2014. He worked on this book in his final years and ultimately decided it should not be published, but his sons decided otherwise.

'James' by Percival Everett (March 19)
Percival Everett reimagines Mark Twain's classic "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" from the point of view of Finn's enslaved companion, Jim, who accompanies him on a journey down the Mississippi River. The novel was pitched as a "ferociously funny retelling" of the original, said Literary Hub. The 2021 Pulitzer Prize finalist is also the author of "Erasure," the source material for last year's "American Fiction," which got several Oscar nominations.

'Who's Afraid of Gender?' by Judith Butler (March 19)
Gender studies scholar Judith Butler, author of 1990's "Gender Trouble," unpacks the anti-gender ideology that has been used by authoritarian regimes to "distract from globally destructive forces like war and climate change," said Time. Butler's work feels especially pertinent now, as "anti-LGBTQ and anti-trans rhetoric is being weaponized by right-wing extremists."

WORD OF THE DAY

leapling

A person born on February 29, also known as a leap-year baby, who technically only celebrates their birthday every four years. It is the rarest birthday; a person has a 1 in 1,461 chance of being born on Leap Day.

Poll watch

Two-thirds of Americans disagree with an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos created via IVF should be considered people, according to an Axios/Ipsos poll. The poll surveyed 1,020 adults and found 66% overall opposed the ruling. This was also seen along party lines, with 82% of Democrats and 49% of Republicans opposing the ruling.

INSTANT OPINION

Today's best commentary

'The case for the US to stop babying Europe on national security'
Daniel R. DePetris at National Review
Since World War II, the U.S. "defense guarantee" has allowed European allies to focus largely on domestic matters, says Daniel R. DePetris. But America doesn't have "unlimited resources," and today's Europe "isn't the Europe of 1945: It is far wealthier and technologically advanced" than its main adversary, Russia. "The most effective way to fix Europe's dependency problem is for the U.S. to stop treating the Europeans as helpless little children incapable of fending for themselves."

'The Supreme Court just gave Trump exactly what he wanted'
Mark Joseph Stern in Slate
Former President Donald Trump has "good reason to hope that he can evade accountability for Jan. 6," says Mark Joseph Stern. The Supreme Court agreed to consider his claim of "absolute immunity" for his actions in office, including efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss. It is "hard to overstate the frivolousness of Trump's legal argument." But the delay "all but guarantees" he won't face trial before November. If elected, he will have his Justice Department dissolve the case altogether.

'Congress is leaving small Pacific allies vulnerable to China's pull'
Josh Rogin in The Washington Post
Congress' dithering on foreign security aid isn't just putting Ukraine and Israel at risk, says Josh Rogin. Lawmakers have yet to appropriate the $2 billion needed to renew the economic and defense deal that has kept three tiny but strategically important islands in the North Pacific — the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau — allied with the United States for decades. "U.S. neglect could be a push into China's waiting arms," further expanding Beijing's influence in the Pacific.

UGA student's death adds fuel to the culture war fire