Secret World Inside You

What’s it all about?

Crawling on your skin, swimming in your gut, and traveling through your intestines are over 100 trillion teeny, tiny microorganisms. Collectively they are known as your microbiome, and they help keep you healthy. In The Secret World Inside You, you’ll be introduced to the community of creatures that your immune system, digestive system, and brain rely on every day!

Using videos, larger-than-life models, and interactive games, The Secret World Inside You explores the microscopic, non-human life in and on our bodies and the benefits of coexisting with them. From allergies, to cavities, to asthma – your microbiome is part of the equation. You get your first dose of microbes at birth. Discover how that community of these bacteria, fungi, and other organisms changes as you grow, as you’re exposed to new environments and foods, and as you take different medications. The Secret World Inside You investigates the cutting-edge science of the human microbiome and a new perspective on human health.

Come meet your microbiome!

Raleigh Exclusive Content

During its time in Raleigh only, the exhibit included added media, interactives, and more.

Pit Stop features cutting edge research by Museum scientists on the armpit microbiomes of human and non-human primates.

Artist Joana Ricou’s Microbial Portrait of Raleigh, NC and individual microbial portraits are works painted using locally-collected microbes.

Special Events

Teen Science Cafe: Making Medicine from Microbes

Join us to learn how a new scientific movement called “synthetic biology” is being inspired by Lego to turn microbes into microscopic factories for the discovery and manufacture of medicines to treat human diseases and infections.

Science Cafe: You Cannot B. Cereus: Microbial Food Safety in The Modern World

Café Speaker Dr. Ben Chapman studies how food becomes contaminated with pathogens, how to avoid it, and what to do once food has been contaminated.

Rob Dunn: The Wild Life of Our Bodies, Homes and Foods

Dr. Rob Dunn explains how we are beginning a new phase of our relationship with other species—a phase in which we use all of our best insights to control dangerous species, but in which we also figure out ways to favor the richness of beneficial species.