NASA Scientist Revive 10,000-Year-Old Microorganisms (bbc.com)

"Scientists have extracted long-dormant microbes from inside the famous giant crystals of the Naica mountain caves in Mexico -- and revived them," reports the BBC. An anonymous reader writes: "The organisms were likely to have been encased in the striking shafts of gypsum at least 10,000 years ago, and possibly up to 50,000 years ago," according to the BBC, which calls the strange lifeforms "another demonstration of the ability of life to adapt and cope in the most hostile of environments." With no light, extremophile species must "chemosynthesise," deriving all their energy by extracting minerals from rocks. These ancient microbes "are not very closely related to anything in the known genetic databases," according to the new director of NASA's Astrobiology Institute, who helped conduct the research, and believes that the microbes could help suggest what life might look like on other planets. The BBC adds that many other scientists "suspect that if life does exist elsewhere in the Solar System, it is most likely to be underground, chemosynthesising like the microbes of Naica."

Comments

Whythe vaguness about the age?

[Applehu Akbar]

Even though these bacteria are still alive, carbon dating should still work as long as the organism is no longer absorbing carbon from its environment.

Re: Whythe vaguness about the age?

[Mascot]

Yet you absolutely refuse to even consider anything religious.

That's profound ignorance, or an outright lie. E.g. there are several published experiments regarding the efficacy of prayer (summary: praying doesn't help). At least one of the studies was funded by the alleged pro-religious Templeton Foundation.

There seems to be some confusion in superstitious circles about what "keeping an open mind" actually means. It does not mean "accept anything you're told without evidence," or "accept anything you're told unless you can prove the opposite." It does mean "be open to evaluating new evidence when presented with it."

In other words, present your evidence for your religious claims. If the evidence holds up to scrutiny, the claim will be accepted. To my knowledge, this has yet to happen.

Re:Whythe vaguness about the age?

[quenda]

Carbon dating tells you when the carbon was taken from the atmosphere. It depends on a known ratio of carbon-14 isotopes in the air.
It does not work for underground organisms, where the air may contain CO2 from the rocks.

Reviving acient microorganisms...

[OpenSourced]

I've seen that film.

It doesn't end well.