Reacción a "Reactions: Myths and exaggerations about the microbiome harm your research, an article warns"

In this perspective, Alan Walker and Lesley Hoyles write about erroneous but still recurring data in the field of the human microbiome. Like other rapidly developing fields of research, and one that is also of great interest to the general public, the most accurate data are not always used when discussing the microbiome. A typical example is the ratio of bacterial to human cells, which had been estimated at 10:1 in the 1970s and was more accurately calculated at approximately 1:1 in 2016, but the updated data is often not used. Others are historical acknowledgements of research preceding the development of massive sequencing techniques or about who first used the term 'microbiome'. Such articles do not provide new results, but they can help the field move forward more precisely and focus efforts on priority research questions.