Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Conan the Bacterium

Posted by timothy on from the survivor dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The world's toughest organism, able to withstand thousands of time more radiation than a human, is reported by the Weizmann Institute to have its secret to survival as a tightly packed DNA ring. Their Science article indicates that radiation-induced breakages are held tightly packed rather than floating off into the intracellular fluid. The bacteria,Deinococcus radiodurans, was discovered decades ago in canned food that was sterilized using radiation. Red patches appeared in the cans - colonies of the bacterium - setting off questions as to how it could have survived."

5 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. NExt up: by Unknown+Poltroon · · Score: 5, Funny

    They can have a sample of the chlorox resistant mildew in my shower. I think its started feeding on the bleach, rather than being harmed by it.

    --
    All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
  2. Re:minor nit by Lochin+Rabbar · · Score: 4, Funny

    The plural of "bacteria" is actually not "bacterium," but rather "bacterii" (analogous to "virii").

    Bullshitii

    Bacteria is the plural of bacterium.

  3. Re:minor nit by lostboy2 · · Score: 4, Informative
    Out of curiosity, I checked with the OED Online and here's what it has to say:

    b. Pl. viruses. An infectious organism that is usu. submicroscopic, can multiply only inside certain living host cells (in many cases causing disease) and is now understood to be a non-cellular structure lacking any intrinsic metabolism and usually comprising a DNA or RNA core inside a protein coat
    So, I guess it's "viruses" after all.

  4. Numerical Comparisons by skwang · · Score: 5, Interesting

    For a numerical comparison I found some rough numbers for what other living organisms can survive. The unit of radiation used is a Gray, which is the unit used to measure the absorbed dosage of radiation. It does not tell relate the biological effects of that radiation.

    These numbers are ones I received from a radiation safety lecture at CERN. I can't vouch for the authenticity of the numbers. But remember, they are obtained from non-controlled experiments (like nuclear accidents) and are an estimates of the amount of dosage needed to kill said organism.

    • Animal________Grays(Gy)
    • Sheep_________1.6
    • Donkey________1.6
    • Swine_________2.0
    • Goat__________2.3
    • Dog___________2.7
    • Man__________2.7,2.4,2.3 (depending on study)
    • Rabbit_________8.4
    • Rat___________9.0
    • Mouse________11-12
    • Desert Mouse__13-15
    • Frog_________30
    • Snail_________200
    • Amoeba_______3000

    Now according to the Science magazine article, the bacteria, Deinococcus radiodurans can stand up to 15,000 Gy of radiation!

    1. Re:Numerical Comparisons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There is a researcher at my university who works with D. radiodurans. His favorite picture to show is a petri dish of happily growing bacteria next to the pyrex beaker they were previously irradiated in. The radiation they were subjected to was so intense the glass beaker is discolored and brittle - but the bacteria survived.