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3000-year-old Microbes
marga writes "Science Daily is running a story about a group of researchers the have been drilling into the Antarctic ice and discovered 3000-year-old microbes that could come back to life if put in contact with liquid water. And not only that, they claim that they have uncovered a whole new ecological system lying beneath the Lake Vida."
I know I worry too much, but this makes me think of the Andromeda Strain.
My other Slashdot ID is much lower.
It makes the prospects for life on Europa just that much more promising. We're finding life can exist in such extreme conditions. It's time we sent a probe to drill beneath the ice there.
I certainly worry more about our own, Earth DNA. There is still no evidence of extraterrestrial life existence, which may just mean that no alien life form has reached our planet yet. That is why I do not worry about it. But I do worry about our domestic life forms, which -- unlike alien life forms -- are known to be sometimes lethal to other life forms of Earth.
What do you mean by "polluted"?
~Christopher Doopov
I don't know if this was meant to be a joke (please excuse my lack of sense of humor then) but the age of those organisms is meaningless. I do not care if any given life form is one year old or million years old, as long as it is safe for humans. Remember that there are species, which have not been evolving for many years. There is no difference between such an organism today, and the same organism years ago, because it has not changed. The age is not an issue, the behavior is.
~Christopher Doopov
Let's see... How many umpteen-thousand-year-old woolly mammoths have been dug out of Siberian ice? How many slow-moving glaciers are drooling ancient bits of organic crud all the time? How many deep old aquifers have been drilled & pumped by water-hungry people?
How many times have ancient supergerms from these Not-Meant-To-Be-Touched-By-Man sources nearly wiped humanity from the face of the Earth?
There's really no need to fear for the future, folks. Our handsome hero, his beautiful babe, and their nerdy sidekick will save the world before bedtime.
We'll return to tonight's feature - "Purple Doom From The Ice Continent" - after a quick message from our sponsors...
It's easy to make up & spread cool- and credible-sounding stuff. Finding & checking hard facts is hard work.
I think he meant alien in the traditional sense, i.e. "from outside the enclosed ecosystem", not "extraterrestrial." In other words, did the scientists unwittingly just go and open up a lake that's been sealed for 3000 years and contaminate it before it could even be studied? Did thier drills leak anything into said lake, affecting it's chemistry? etc.
_sig_ is away
There were some yeast spores dating back 25-40 million years which were claimed to have been revived. Google's cached copy of the Time Magazine article from 1995
They used it to brew beer!
Now there's Procress Through Science!
I have discovered a truly marvelous sig, unfortunately the sig limit is too small to contain i
They didn't actually drill far enough down to enter the water. They went to within three meters of the bottom of the ice. They found what they did in this ice, and are preparing to go back and actually drill through the ice, when they have equipment that can prevent contamination. The Nature article is much better than this Science Daily.