What's In Your Belly Button?

Everyone has one, but no one thinks much about it. Until now.

Scientists at North Carolina State University have decided to probe - literally - the inner secrets of the belly button. Talk about navel intelligence!

They've started the Belly Button Biodiversity project to interest people in microbiology and teach them about the bacteria that's found on our skin.

Volunteers swab their navels for the researchers, who then grow the bacteria in a culture. Participants can even go online and see what's growing in that little place they probably forget to wash.

Since the project began in February, researchers have discovered all kinds of interesting things. Like outies are rare and belly button lint isn't really just lint. It's other icky stuff. Read more about it on The Body Odd on MSNBC.com.

Photo credit: Dearmax via flickr