This is not a joke. There is a team of scientists asking for up to 10,000 samples of various poos. What are they going to do to them, you might ask? They are going to label them and put them in a freezer. My only hope is that they do not hold any dinner parties!
But seriously, this is part of a vital science project. Within the University of Zurich, there is a department called the Microbiota Vault. This vault already holds over 200 various types of fermented foods. They all carry billions of microbes in them, many of them are of the “gut-friendly” sort.
And this is where the poop samples come in, as they also contain billions of microbes. In essence, this is a “Doomsday Vault”. If in the future, the planet is threatened by some new disease, it might find that the vital building blocks to a treatment no longer exist. That is when certain samples can be thawed out, and medical research can begin to find a cure. So, why may we have no particular microbes in the future? The answer is because some of our agricultural processes, as well as the effects of climate change, are destroying the microbes we may need to rely on in the future.
This initiative is relatively new. The vault was originally set up in 2018. It already has around 1,200 samples of poo, but it needs about another 9,000. But there is no need to suddenly contact them straight from your toilet. They are collecting samples from around the world, and so they may have some from your region. Therefore, you are safe to flush!
John Pullen 