The problem with a catchy name is that sometimes it catches on too well. Take the hygiene hypothesis (卫生说) outlined in 1989 by David Strachan of St George’s, a hospital and medical school in London. It suggests that the rise of allergenic (致敏的) sensitivity observed in rich countries over the course of the 20th century may have been caused by a shift from rural to urban living, so that children are no longer routinely exposed to farm animals.

Dr Strachan’s work still has much to recommend it. What the catchy label has encouraged, however, is a false belief that cleanliness is not necessarily a health benefit. In reality, says Thomas Marrs, an allergist at King’s College, London, hygiene is usually about bacteria (细菌) causing infection—and the bacteria that may be beneficial are different from those which do that. But it is plain to see why alternative descriptions, such as “the high turnover and diversity hypothesis” or the “the microbial deprivation hypothesis (微生物剥夺假说)”, have not caught on, more accurate though they may be.

In an attempt to collect further data on the matter, Hisao Okabe of Fukushima Medical University and his team have looked through the Japan Environment and Children’s Study, which tracked over 100,000 births between 2019 and 2022.

Pursuing the animal connection, they looked for correlations between household pet ownership before and immediately after a child’s birth, and any food allergies found in that child’s first three years.

Of the 66,000 or so children they chose to look at, 22% had been born into households with pets. Children in households with dogs, the researchers found, had lower rates than average of allergies to eggs, milk and nuts. Those cohabiting with cats seemed more tolerant of eggs, wheat and beans. However, children whose parents kept turtles (龟) appeared unaffected. And, curiously, those exposed to hamsters (仓鼠) appeared more likely than average to be allergic to nuts.

Confirming or denying this will need more study. Nevertheless, Dr Okabe’s contribution is an interesting addition to the debate about Dr Strachan’s brainchild.

It’s most people’s nightmare: surviving a plane crash only to be trapped in a jungle with no way of contacting the outside world. But this was reality for four Colombian children, and in an incredible story, they survived.

The children, aged 13, 9 and 4, as well as an 11-month-old baby, were flying with their mother from their village in the Amazon to visit their father in San José del Guaviare. The single-engine plane on which they were flying experienced engine problems and disappeared on May 1, 2023. Bad weather prevented the army from finding the crash site for two weeks. where they then found the dead bodies of three adults, including the children’s mother.

How did these children survive conditions that would be an unimaginable struggle for most adults? They are members of the Huitoto Indigenous group and were raised in the jungle. As such, they have a better understanding of the rainforest. They know which fruits are safe to eat and which plants should be avoided. Working with, rather than against, the Amazon. they survived off of juan soco (a fruit similar to passion fruit) and seeds, while feeding the baby water mixed with yucca flour that they found on the plane.

While the children got on with the business of surviving, the Colombian army worked with Indigenous volunteers to find them. After 40 days of searching, the children were found and taken to recover at a military hospital in Bogota.

While many around the world have taken this survival story of resilience to be a miracle, others point out that it is the result of an ancient knowledge of the rainforest that has been passed down through Indigenous communities over the generations. Indigenous tribes have a close relationship to the Amazon, marked by a deep respect for the forest that provides them with shelter and sustenance. It is their close connection to and understanding of the rainforest that undoubtedly helped the children to survive.

Become a Frog-watcher

Frogs are disappearing at an alarming rate across the globe due to a number of factors such as habitat loss, pollution, and disease. As a citizen scientist with Frog Watch USA, you can help save our frogs!

Trainings:

2023 training coming soon!

Price: $ 10/ household (includes up to 2 adults and children of that household)

Frog Watch trainings cover the importance of amphibians (两栖动物) in the environment.’ The instruction focuses on how to:

●monitor our local frog population to protect the species

●determine factors when choosing a site to monitor

●tell frog species apart by their calls

●report findings to Frog Watch USA

The training will take approximately 2 hours to complete but will be entirely self-paced and permit the registrants to take breaks as needed throughout. And it covers all of the Frog Watch essentials to prepare you for your first monitoring session!

After passing a test on identifying frog calls at the end of the training, certified volunteers then commit to monitoring a local amphibian habitat (such as a pond or lake) approximately once a week for about 15 minutes and collecting/submitting data on what they hear. Data collected will be added to a national Frog Watch USA database.

Please note: Frog Watch trainings will cover a lot of information and protocols (规程). While frog-watching is a great after-dark family activity for all ages, the trainings are designed for interested older children and adults.