Dr. Simon Park/University of SurreyYour cell phone is disgusting.
Dr. Simon Park from the University of Surrey in the U.K. had his students imprint their cell phones onto petri dishes containing bacteria-growing nutrients. Then, they let the bacteria bloom. After a couple of days, the plates were filled with all different kinds of bacteria and fungi.
Most of the bacteria was harmless, according to the Daily Mail, just like the bacteria that constantly covers our bodies, but some may be able to cause disease.
You can see the outline of where the phone touched the bacteria food in many of the pictures, but most of the device's imprint is coated in yellow-ish splotches — bacteria that was transferred from the phone and grew and divided into colonies of millions of cells.
"From these results, it seems that the mobile phone doesn’t just remember telephone numbers, but also harbors a history of our personal and physical contacts such as other people, soil, etc," Park writes on his blog.
Our phones aren't the only things we come in contact with every day that's bathed in bacteria. Your pillowcase and toilet seat are also teeming with tiny organisms.