Baby poopology study holds secrets of the gut

clipped from www.canada.com Two U.S. medical institutes have teamed up to explore a poorly understood material that regulates everything from your immune system to how you digest food: baby poop. Yes, this is serious science. At least the lab supplies are cheap. Fourteen babies provided raw material for the poopology study, which is trying to solve a puzzle: How does the human gut change from a totally germ-free place -- in the womb -- to one filled with billions of bacteria? And why does the change happen so differently in different babies? The medical world knows our DNA from one end to the other, but can't say the same about the intestine -- especially in the first year of life. Yet the effects last a lifetime.