I just went back and listened to this interview I did on “Radiolab” with Robert Krulwich a couple years ago. It’s about the life within us. I led Robert on a quick tour through our gut, stopping to describe a few of the many species that lurk inside our bodies.

It all still holds true, I think–except for one thing I say at 3:02.

It’s at that point that I say that in the womb, we’re sterile. Only as we’re being born, I inform Robert, do we start to getting inoculated with microbes.

I thought I was right at the time. Scientist after scientist told me that. I read it in scientific reviews.

But now a number of scientists are having some serious doubts about sterile fetuses. In fact, mothers might be seeding their babies in the womb, bestowing on them the friends that will help them get through pregnancy safely and get off to a good start in life.

If Krulwich ever asks me again about the microbiome, I’ve got something to add.

This fascinating new prospect is the subject of my new “Matter” column today in the New York Times. Check it out. (Here’s an alternate link if the recent NYT hacking woes are still causing grief.)

Despite living in the carotid artery of Northeast traffic, I still share my property with a particularly prehistoric kind of wildlife. Each spring, monstrous snapping turtles emerge from the salt marshes and rip up our garden to lay eggs. Then in late summer the baby turtles hatch and crawl out of the mulch to head for the water again.

This was the scene outside our front door (I highly recommend setting the movie to full-screen). The baby snapping turtles, each the size of a jumbo chicken egg, crawled to the light one by one and clambered onto our stone steps. As this video demonstrates, baby snapping turtles deal with these unexpected situations without much hesitation. They climb to the edge of their world and keep going.