"Hands, touching hands...

Reaching out,
Touching me,
Touching you.
--Neil Diamond

Yech, maybe not. Consider this study out from the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Scientists in the ecology and evolutionary biology department there used gene sequencing techniques to check out the bacterial communities living on hands in the University community. Not only did your average student mitt carry around 150 different species of bacteria, left hands and right hands carried different species, coeds had a greater diversity of species than their male colleagues, and regular hand washing did not cut down on the wide spectrum of bacterial types.

Do we dare shake hands ever again, or just nod and smile with shaking hands when we meet another traveling petri dish on the road of life? Study co-author Rob Knight has this reassuring news for the shakers and movers amongst us: "The vast majority of bacteria are non-pathogenic, and some bacteria even protect against the spread of pathogens."