Diver, having passed through the antiseptic germicide trap, enters the germ-free animal colony. University of Notre Dame, Indiana, 1950

From Library of Congress.

124 points · 7 comments · view on lemmy.world

7 Comments

relianceschool@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 349d (3 replies)

What exactly did they mean by "germ-free"? Over half the cells in our bodies are non-human microbes.

Warl0k3@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 349d

I'm guessing they meant this:

Germ-free organisms are multi-cellular organisms that have no microorganisms living in or on them

But I haven't been able to find anything concrete about what this facility was. From my experience, they're not creatures with "no microorganisms at all" but just "extremely controlled microorganisms" and germ free mice often lack, for example, things like gut fauna. It's not a pleasant life for the mice.

tdawg@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 349d

Did we know that in 1950?

naught101@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 349d

He's in some kind of air tight suit by the looks of it

Larry13@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 349d (1 reply)
Zombiepirate@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 349d

Thanks so much! I posted it kind of hoping someone would know more. It's such an interesting picture.

DarkCloud@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 349d

"Finally I get to inject monkeys with diseases!"