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

Re: Whythe vaguness about the age?

[Nunya666]

I thought you scientist types were supposed to have an open mind? Yet you absolutely refuse to even consider anything religious.

Because religion is made-up bullshit. Being a scientist requires intelligence and the ability evaluate factual evidence. Once most scientists evaluate the "evidence" of religion, they realize that it is a man-made concept.

Yet, we both know you can't prove it wrong, so why be so closed minded?

Nor can you prove it right. Why do you insist in believing in fairy tales?