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34,000-Year-Old Organisms Found Buried Alive

Posted by Soulskill on from the ceti-alpha-five-not-involved dept.

cold fjord writes "A scientist has made a weird and wonderful find. 'It's a tale that has all the trappings of a cult 1960s sci-fi movie: Scientists bring back ancient salt crystals, dug up from deep below Death Valley for climate research. The sparkling crystals are carefully packed away until, years later, a young, unknown researcher takes a second look at the 34,000-year-old crystals and discovers, trapped inside, something strange. Something... alive.' The Geological Society of America's current issue of GSA Today has the academic paper."

3 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. Re:tl;dr: by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Step one for finding interesting life: look in places where you know damn well life cannot exist.

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  2. Re:Specimen handling protocols by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The fact that they were trapped in salt would be the big clue.

  3. Nauls: Maybe we're at war with Norway? by circletimessquare · · Score: 3, Insightful

    MacReady: I dunno, it's like this: thousands of years ago this spaceship crashes, and this thing, whatever it is, jumps out or crawls out and gets entombed in the ice.
    Garry: So, the Norwegians find it, and they dig it out of the ice...
    MacReady: That's right, Garry. They dig it up, they cart it back to their base. Somehow it gets thawed, it wakes up, probaly not the best of moods, and... I don't know, I wasn't there!

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