A team of researchers suggested that key to your identity lie in your microbial cloud. The researchers said that each of us is surrounded by a cloud of invisible bacteria, and by sampling this microbial mist, they can detect whether it has been emitted by a man or a woman.

The findings of the study, published in the journal PeerJ, were carried out on 11 people. The results showed there is possibility that they can identify people from their microbial miasma.

The researchers said that the study results could be used by forensic scientists to place a suspect at a crime scene. It could also help doctors understand how infections spread.

Researcher James Meadow said that during the study, he asked 11 men and women to sit in a small, sterile room, one at a time, for up to four hours. Each volunteer was given clean clothing to wear and sat on a plastic chair that had been disinfected.

But as time went on, it became clear they were emitting millions of bugs. Some came from their breath, others from their skin or perhaps even their sweat or hair.

After the analysis of the bugs caught on Petri dishes left lying in the chamber and samples of air filtered out of it, the researchers found that the volunteers carried different combinations of germs.

In many cases, they were even able to identify who was sitting in the chamber by their microbiome, or the combination of bacteria present.

Dr Meadow said, "Our data make clear that an occupied space is microbially distinct from an unoccupied one, and reveal for the first time that individuals occupying a space can emit their own distinct personal microbial cloud".