4 ms·

If you went back in time to that era with an apple from 2011, it would still have bacteria and fungi on its surface and inside. The rotting might be slowed by

If you went back in time to that era with an apple from 2011, it would still have bacteria and fungi on its surface and inside. The rotting might be slowed by a possible higher intensity of ultraviolet light from the Sun, which would kill any microbes on the surface.

throwaway32 15y ago
What i have always found fascinating is how the biology of macroscopically large beings is so intimately intertwined at so many levels with that of the microscopic. For instance, the average human contains/carries 10x more nonhuman cells than human ones.
- sosuke 15y ago
  Do you have a source for the nonhuman cell count? That would be an excellent water cooler topic to read up on.
  - throwaway32 15y ago
    I managed to find this http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/dec96/840131722.Dv.r.html http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/dec96/840131722.Dv.r.ht... but unfortunately it also does not cite a source :)
  - nitrogen 15y ago
    See the second paragraph of this Wikipedia article: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Intestinal_flora https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Intestinal_fl...