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3000-year-old Microbes

Posted by michael on from the stuff-you-found-at-the-back-of-your-refrigerator dept.

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."

3 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. Tune Back to the Late Late Show, kiddies by 0x69 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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...

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    It's easy to make up & spread cool- and credible-sounding stuff. Finding & checking hard facts is hard work.
  2. Bah! That's nothing. by Royster · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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!

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    I have discovered a truly marvelous sig, unfortunately the sig limit is too small to contain i
  3. Re:Worried by Anik315 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Epidemic viral agents/bacteria aren't going to come from some exotic place since they have to be tailor made for our immune system.

    Our immune system has been evolving for hundreds of millions years, and it will attack everything that doesn't have the right 'password'. The only way pathogens can get those 'passwords' is just through enormous amounts of random mutation.

    The rather prosiac solution is to stop using antibiotics irresponsibly because that just allows the stronger strains to proliferate.