Microbes Alive After Being Frozen for 32,000 Years

An anonymous reader writes "LiveScience is reporting on a new type of bacteria that after being frozen 32,000 years in the Arctic was ready to swim, eat and multiply instantly upon being thawed. Researchers are excited because they're the sort of microbes that might thrive in the ice sea announced on Mars yesterday. The instant revival abilities mean a future mission, if it found anything on Mars, could conceivably culture it and bring it back alive. Maybe NASA could market them as Martian Sea Monkeys."

Comments

Panspermia and previously thawed 2800 yo bacteria

[Linuxathome]

Thawing out old bacteria is not a new discovery--what's interesting here is that it is older bacteria.

The more interesting question about possible unicellular organisms in Mars is whether they share a common ancestor with Earth's unicellular organisms or did they develop independently of each other. If there is a link/common ancestor, then the currently weak theory of panspermia (life exists and is distributed throughout the universe in the form of germs or spores) would have a big boost in support. Also see this article about possible space bugs written over 2 years ago.

Re:I spit on your 32K years. Try 25M!

[afidel]

Uh, check your facts budy. Here's a link since you obviously can't use google.