According to scientists, those fussy soft-shelled Svengalis who have never put plow to field in their life, a bacteria found in soil may actually prompt the brain to produce one of its “happy” chemical seratonin. Good job, lazy grant-grubbing lie makers!

Treatment of mice with a ‘friendly’ bacteria, normally found in the soil, altered their behavior in a way similar to that produced by antidepressant drugs, reports research published in the latest issue of Neuroscience. … Interest in the project arose after human cancer patients being treated with the bacteria Mycobacterium vaccae unexpectedly reported increases in their quality of life. Lowry and his colleagues reasoned that this effect could be caused by activation of neurons in the brain that contained serotonin.

It’s only a short leap from these tests to wonder if somehow playing in the dirt—gardening—could cause a higher exposure to the bacteria which in turn makes gardeners happy. I mean, it may not be a smart scientific leap, but I’m probably better at science than any stupid old scientist.

Getting dirty may lift your mood [EurekAlert]

(Photo: Life on the Edge)