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The next time you look in a mirror, think about this: In many ways you're more microbe than human. There are 10 times more cells from microorganisms like bacteria and fungi in and on our bodies than there are human cells. But these tiny compatriots are invisible to the naked eye. So we asked artist Ben Arthur to give us a guided tour of the rich universe of the human microbiome.

Which pathogens play a major role in causing infection? Just recently, the Robert Koch-Institute prepared a list of 127 pathogens by ranking them in terms of frequency, spread and burden of disease.   Considering this prioritisation, we extended our search tool by bacteria, viruses and fungi accordingly. In the list, you will find both the clinically relevant pathogens and the spectrum of effect necessary for disinfectants to inactivate them.

Technical details aside, Crispr-Cas9 makes it easy, cheap, and fast to move genes around-any genes, in any living thing, from bacteria to people. "These are monumental moments in the history of biomedical research," Baltimore says. "They don't happen every day." Using the three-year-old technique, researchers have already reversed mutations that cause blindness, stopped cancer cells from multiplying, and made cells impervious to the virus that causes AIDS. Agronomists have rendered wheat invulnerable to killer fungi like powdery mildew, hinting at engineered staple crops that can feed a population of 9 billion on an ever-warmer planet. Bioengineers have used Crispr to alter the DNA of yeast so that it consumes plant matter and excretes ethanol, promising an end to reliance on petrochemicals. Startups devoted to Crispr have launched. International pharmaceutical and agricultural companies have spun up Crispr R&D. Two of the most powerful universities in the US are engaged in a vicious war over the basic patent.

But now, a century and a half later, scientists from 11 different institutions have joined forces to amass all of that information, plus new data, to create the most comprehensive version of the tree so far. As detailed in a recent article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the new Tree of Life shows how 2.3 million different types of animals, plants, fungi and microbes are interconnected, and how those relationships have diverged since life began on Earth more than 3.5 billion years ago.

In short, you have an aura, except it isn't made of purplish light; it's your personal cloud of dead skin cells, fungus and many, many microbes. And researchers are learning to be able to identify you by it.

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