E. Coli Is Your Oldest Friend

The Evolutionary Genius of This Shifty Bacteria Is Giving Scientists New Healing Superpowers

It’s hard to find a fan of E. coli—especially since last October, when 55 people in 11 states got sick after eating at Chipotle—but we can see a reflection of ourselves in these tiny sausage-shaped bacteria. Like us, E. coli is a tireless innovator—constantly refining more than 700 different strains—though it lives in your intestines, instead of Silicon Valley. While pathogenic E. coli can travel in many different foods—hamburger, sprouts, spinach, romaine lettuce, rotisserie chicken salad, Lebanon bologna, raw cookie dough—“good” E. coli is one of your oldest, most intimate …