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Scientists Resurrect 40,000-Year-Old Worms Buried In Ice (gizmodo.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the holding-on-for-life dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Earlier this month, in the journal Doklady Biological Sciences, a team of Russian scientists announced they had apparently discovered ancient nematode worms that were able to resurrect themselves after spending at least 32,000 years buried in permafrost. The discovery, if legitimate, would represent the longest-surviving return from the cold ever seen in a complex, multi-celled organism, dwarfing even the tardigrade. The worms were found among more than 300 samples of frozen soil pulled from the Kolyma River Lowlands in Northeastern Siberia by the researchers. Two of the samples held the worms, with one from a buried squirrel burrow dating back 32,000 years and one from a glacier dating back 40,000 years. After isolating intact nematodes, the scientists kept the samples at 68 degrees Fahrenheit and left them surrounded by food in a petri dish, just to see what would happen. Over the next few weeks, they gradually spotted flickers of life as the worms ate the food and even cloned new family members. These cloned worms were then cultured separately, and they too thrived.

42 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. And in other news... by Miles_O'Toole · · Score: 3, Funny

    I was recently fortunate to have an extraordinarily cute, 20-something science student resurrect a 53-year-old worm buried in her....um, never mind.

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    1. Re:And in other news... by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      And as a scientist you only focus on the worm, of course.

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    2. Re:And in other news... by hyades1 · · Score: 1

      Ignoring the support structure benefitting said worm would have negative consequences, and is therefore something to be avoided.

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    3. Re:And in other news... by Falconhell · · Score: 1

      Let’s not open that can of worms.

  2. Haven't you seen X files? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Haven't you seen X files?

    I want that placed ERASED.

  3. Bet... by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

    ...they might be surprised when they see a mobile phone.

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  4. Re:A good start by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The scientists didn't resurrect anything. The worms just thawed out and weren't dead.

  5. For most of the World by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

    68 deg F == 20 deg C

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    1. Re:For most of the World by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      And water freezes at 32 deg, boils at 212 deg... very easy to remember.

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    2. Re:For most of the World by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 2

      I'm not sure what your point is. The number of times I talk about phase transitions of water - pretty low. And then I really only care if there may be ice on the road. Number of times I pay attention to the outside weather, or the thermostat, pretty often.

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    3. Re:For most of the World by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      But if you want to turn up the heat in winter you have to press the button on the remote twice!! Celcius is half as many presses, it's just so much more efficient.

    4. Re:For most of the World by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      I like eight farthings to the half shilling.

      So do I, when I'm buying.

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    5. Re:For most of the World by Joce640k · · Score: 1

      Metric people don't do fractions. They decimalize things. No one likes that. I like eight farthings to the half shilling. Get off my lawn!

      Would it be twelve farthings to the half shilling (or did you just disprove your own point)?

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    6. Re:For most of the World by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      68 deg F == 20 deg C

      You mean there are places where this isn’t true?

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    7. Re:For most of the World by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      And the ego-challenged poster will use the word 'stupid', a lot ;-)

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    8. Re:For most of the World by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      Btw why do you think in TFS the temperature is 68 F? Because 68 F is a nice rounded 20 C ...

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    9. Re:For most of the World by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 1

      I'm not keen to open a unit war. But seriously, how Brine and body temps are accurate references? Brine is a high-concentration solution of salt in water, to salt solutions ranging from about 3.5% up to about 26%. Body temp differs 3~6% depending on (healthy) people ethnicity, activity etc...

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    10. Re:For most of the World by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 1

      The scale was based on how humans perceive temperature, 32 may be the freezing point of water but it is not the temp that is intolerable outside in winter. That was determined and set to 0, as well 100 unbearably hot. You know what, those extreme outdoor temps are STILL around the limits of human suffering. For humans and weather it is a perfect scale. Sure metric is great for everything else, but not really for a weather report. Does anyone really like dealing with decimal points for simple weather forcasts?

    11. Re:For most of the World by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

      Of course in hotels they do it like that. Otherwise all the Americans who stay keep pestering concierge to have them explain how the ac works.
      Plus you can just imagine all the lawsuits from angry Americans who pressed the button in the night too many times without thinking. Next time just pay the extra for a European room, you will appreciate the difference.

    12. Re:For most of the World by EETech1 · · Score: 1

      I've noticed s lot of them still keep the internal temp in degrees C and just show it in F

      You can see the 9/5 if you count along when you press the buttons repeatedly.

    13. Re:For most of the World by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 1

      Originally Fahrenheit was based on a salty brine solution, it was rebased it to water only sometime after his death. Do the phase changes of that brine scale exactly the same as plain water with atmospheric pressure? I am not a scientist so please elaborate and educate me, since I honestly don't know.

    14. Re:For most of the World by HiThere · · Score: 1

      Good point, and that brings up the question of error bars. At 68 F one would assume that it was accurate within half a degree Fahrenheit, at 20 C one would assume it was accurate within 5 degrees Celsius. That's a big difference.

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    15. Re:For most of the World by HiThere · · Score: 1

      No they don't. And I'm also sure that the official definition of temperature for BOTH scales talks about standard pressure rather than sea level. And that standard pressure is defined in a way that is not geocentric.

      Still, it was based around geocentric concerns in both cases. The refinements are due to concerns about the standard not remaining fixed over time. (But the real problem has been [recently] the precise definition of mass, i.e. the Kilogram, since the pound has been redefined to be based on the metric system. Have you ever tried to count precisely Avogadro's number of atoms of a precisely specified isotope? Think about the problem for a bit.)

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    16. Re:For most of the World by ChatHuant · · Score: 1

      Basing something on the melting and boiling points of water is a moving target as the atmospheric pressure changes. So yes.

      Which is why the Celsius scale is based on melting(*) and boiling points at a pressure of 1 atm. So no.

      (*) Yeah, I know that was redefined to use the triple point of water

    17. Re:For most of the World by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      Yup. A lot of cooking recipes have either converted Celsius or converted and rounded Celsius in them. They start standing out once you notice them.

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    18. Re:For most of the World by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      At 68 F one would assume that it was accurate within half a degree Fahrenheit, at 20 C one would assume it was accurate within 5 degrees Celsius.

      No one would assume 5 degrees. Commercial temperature controls for reptiles in a terrarium are more precise about that.

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    19. Re:For most of the World by HiThere · · Score: 1

      We aren't talking about controls here, but about a news article. And I can easily imagine an editor rounding 24.5 degrees to 20 degrees.

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  6. Re:A good start by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 2

    Good luck resurrecting an auroch or a Bali tiger. These worms were merely hibernating.

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  7. Re:WHY? by gweihir · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It tells us things about how long life could potentially travel through space. It is a bit hard to run a lab-experiment for 40'000 years...

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  8. Re:A good start by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 2

    Good luck resurrecting an auroch or a Bali tiger. These worms were merely hibernating.

    They should try resurrecting the Jurassic Blue parrot . . . it's just resting . . .

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  9. Watch out! by geekymachoman · · Score: 1

    This is done by Russians, and this is Putin's attempt to get rid of heaven western world is, and it's superior ideals and superior people by genetically modifying these ancient worms to travel all the way to America (and their overlords, Israel), and attach themselves inside their human hosts after which the human host will start acting as a proxy to do Putin's work on bringing down America.

    If you ignore this warning, Trump will be your president forever.

  10. Fitting nick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    politicizing basic science makes you look like a bit of a d

  11. Yikes by AndyKron · · Score: 1

    Oh great. Now we have retro worms to worry about?

  12. I've seen this X-Files episode, we're all doomed by pote · · Score: 1

    DOOOOOMED!

  13. Re:I've seen this X-Files episode, we're all doome by Jzanu · · Score: 1

    Was that the one with the loggers, or do you mean the one with the fluke on the submarine?

  14. Greaaat... by Hallux-F-Sinister · · Score: 1

    Lovely... Russian zombie worms. Actually, that's probably the least of our worries. It does beg the question though... are Russians running out of worms? Is this some new, wild trend in keeping the populace fed? "Let them eat 40,000 year-old dead, zombified worms" just doesn't have the same ring to it as "let them eat cake". Does this make these the new oldest living things on Earth? Or does it not count to be alive, then alive 40,000 years later, if you were dead in the intervening time? Just curious.

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  15. Re:A good start by Ruede · · Score: 1

    it is more likely that the dems will bring trump into office for a 3rd term

  16. These guys not watch the X-Files "Ice" episode? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    This reminds me of the episode where scientists unearth ancient parasitic worms from the ice that cause them to murder each other?
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_(The_X-Files)

    Not a good idea!

  17. Re:Don't look behind the curtain by HiThere · · Score: 1

    As long as the internal measure is in floats or rationals it would hardly matter.

    FWIW, I use both Fahrenheit and Celsius, depending on what I'm thinking about, and sometimes Kelvin. Use the tool that fits the problem. And the thermostats that I'm familiar with can easily switch the display from Celsius to Fahrenheit or back. I rarely see one that handles Kelvin, though.

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  18. Re: WHY? by HiThere · · Score: 1

    Well, it gets colder, but once your frozen, getting colder just increases the shelf life. Radiation is a problem, but the insides of meteors are shielded from it somewhat.

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  19. Re: WHY? Arrgh!! Homonyms! by HiThere · · Score: 1

    Well, it gets colder, but once you're frozen, getti...

    --

    I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  20. Re:A good start by Hallux-F-Sinister · · Score: 1

    Good luck resurrecting an auroch or a Bali tiger. These worms were merely hibernating.

    They should try resurrecting the Jurassic Blue parrot . . . it's just resting . . .

    Remarkable bird, the Jurassic Blue... beautiful plumage, innit?

    --
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