Meet the Scientist Who Injected Himself With 3.5 Million-Year-Old Bacteria (vice.com)

Press2ToContinue writes with this profile of Anatoli Brouchkov, a scientist who isn't afraid to take an extremely hands-on approach to science. Vice reports: "Anatoli Brouchkov is a soft-spoken guy with silver hair, and when he lets out a reserved chuckle, his eyes light up like he was belly laughing. If you met him on the street, you'd never guess that he once injected himself with a 3.5 million-year-old strain of bacteria, just to see what would happen. According to Brouchkov, Bacillus F has a mechanism that has enabled it to survive for so long beneath the ice, and that the same mechanism could be used to extend human life, too—perhaps, one day, forever. In tests, Brouchkov says the bacteria allowed female mice to reproduce at ages far older than typical mice. Fruit flies, he told the Siberian Times, also experienced a 'positive impact' from exposure to the bacteria."

Comments

So he's a crank?

[Eunuchswear]

According to Brouchkov, Bacillus F has a mechanism that has enabled it to survive for so long beneath the ice, and that the same mechanism could be used to extend human life, too—perhaps, one day, forever.

Nutter.

Re:So he's a crank?

[Bengie]

Since something like 99.99% of bacteria is harmless to humans and this bacteria predates humans, he just wanted to see how quickly his immune system would destroy it.

Russians

[Crowd Computing]

Russian roulette, vodka, communism, zombie bacteria, Vladimir Putin -- Russians really know how to take risks.

Re:Russians

[vikingpower]

No generalized health insurance, the NRA, limitless capitalism, sugar in nearly all processed foods, Trump, the Bushes - Americans really know how to take risks.

Re: Russians

[MrKaos]

America is doomed.

America can only be saved by the people who love it. People who cherish freedom and the ideals of democracy and who are prepared to defend it. Your political parties are two different arms of the same political parties. You are deluded if you think left and right politics even exists anymore.

Franklin predicted that the downfall of the American dream of democracy world come from the corruption of the people. This is not to say that the people are corrupt, even when many are. What it means is that the people have been corrupted (access to education, healthcare, employment, media) so they can be incrementally cheated out of the right to democracy, with their rights progressively converted to capital.

Your most dangerous enemies are your domestic enemies who control money and power. I hope you can sort it out, I miss the nice America.

Too unique

[GbrDead]

> If you met him on the street, you'd never guess that he once injected himself with a 3.5 million-year-old strain of bacteria...

  Well, I wouldn't guess this for anybody.

Re:Enough with the space shit

[GrumpySteen]

Found the mopey goth teen who can't get laid.

Re:I haven't had flu in years either

[GrumpySteen]

The bacteria in question is a strain of Bacillus Cerus. Some strains of Bacillus Cerus cause food poisoning, but others are used as a probiotic to reduce the incidence of salmonella in farm animals intestines. We already know that the intestinal biome of animals can have a serious affect on the animals' health, so the idea that this strain could be beneficial is completely plausible.

As far as this bacteria being an extremophile? Not so much. Baccilus Cerus undergoes sporulation when conditions are unfavorable. Spores are difficult to kill. Leaving behind spores when you die so that a new generation can arise when conditions are more favorable isn't the same as thriving in an extreme environment. If it was, humans would have to be classed as extremophiles too because we can freeze an embryo and implant it later.

Re:Million-year-old bacteria is one thing

[NotInHere]

He injected 3.5 million bacteria, each of them year-old. You are reading it wrongly.