Physician James Hamblin, staff writer for The Atlantic, explains what would happen if you stopped showering — and other fun facts from the emerging science of the skin microbiome. Plus: are some trees really immortal?

Are some trees immortal? A new study says no by Grant Currin

• Despite debate, even the world’s oldest trees are not immortal. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-07/cp-dde072020.php
• Giaimo, C. (2020, July 27). Can Trees Live Forever? New Kindling for an Immortal Debate. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/27/science/trees-immortality.html
• Wang, L., Cui, J., Jin, B., Zhao, J., Xu, H., Lu, Z., Li, W., Li, X., Li, L., Liang, E., Rao, X., Wang, S., Fu, C., Cao, F., Dixon, R. A., & Lin, J. (2020). Multifeature analyses of vascular cambial cells reveal longevity mechanisms in old Ginkgo biloba trees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(4), 2201–2210. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1916548117
• Munné-Bosch, S. (2020). Long-Lived Trees Are Not Immortal. Trends in Plant Science. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2020.06.006

Additional resources from James Hamblin: board-certified preventive medicine physician, staff writer at The Atlantic, and lecturer in public health policy at Yale University

• Pick up “Clean: The New Science of Skin” on Amazon https://amazon.com
• Follow @JamesHamblin on Twitter https://twitter.com/jameshamblin
• Hamblin, J. (2016, June 9). What Happens When You Quit Showering? The Atlantic; The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/06/i-stopped-showering-and-life-continued/486314/
• Hamblin, J. (2020, June 22). Is It Possible to Shower Too Much? The Atlantic; The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/07/hygiene-is-overrated/612235/
• James Hamblin’s articles for The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/author/james-hamblin/
• Official website http://www.jameshamblin.com/info
• Yale bio https://medicine.yale.edu/profile/james_hamblin/

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