While still in the womb, the gut of an infant is completely sterile. But as the birthing process begins, bacteria and other microbes soon start to colonize the surfaces of the infant’s body—the skin, nose, mouth, and by far the most densely colonized, the gut. Babies born by caesarean section are initially populated with different microbes (from the hospital and skin microbiota) than babies del...

Abstract Marsilio Ficino’s view on ensoulment, which can be extrapolated from his critique of natal astrology, relies the relations metaphysical proportion between different levels life and being are central to Platonic philosophy. Drawing primarily Plotinus, Ficino describes emergence in embryo as a process World Soul is true agent. For him, ‘human nature’ that present developing attracts into...