A burglar sneaks into a house on a quiet street in New York City. He walks through the house, touching countertops and door handles. Finally, he steals a single card from a full deck. Then he leaves.
Nearby, Jarrad Hampton-Marcell is waiting. But he’s not a police officer—he’s a researcher, an assistant professor studying microbial ecology at the University of Illinois Chicago. He set up this robbery, and many others like it, as a science experiment. He’s part of an effort to develop a brand new way to catch criminals—by collecting and analyzing their microbes.
Microbes include bacteria, fungi, and other microscopic critters. They cover your body, inside and out. But these miniscule hitchhikers don’t always cartoon, surrounded by a cloud of invisible bugs.
