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Mind your language

‘Trillions’ doesn’t add up

12 April 2025

9:00 AM

12 April 2025

9:00 AM

‘Oh no, darling’ said my husband, stirring from torpor in his armchair, ‘only about seven ounces of you is bacteria – about the same amount as those little bottles of milk we had at school.’ I had been talking about billions, trillions and quadrillions and had suggested that our bodies’ cells were outnumbered ten to one by bacteria.

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