34,000-year-old bacteria discovered...and it's still alive

Christian Science Monitor ^ | January 13, 2011 | Andrea Mustain

[SunkenCiv]

Salt crystals grow very quickly, imprisoning whatever happens to be floating -- or living -- nearby inside tiny bubbles just a few microns across, akin to naturally made, miniature snow-globes...

Lowenstein said new research indicates this process occurs in modern saline lakes, further backing up Schubert's astounding discovery, which was first revealed about a year ago...

Schubert, now an assistant researcher at the University of Hawaii, said the bacteria -- a salt-loving sort still found on Earth today -- were shrunken and small, and suspended in a kind of hibernation state...

The key to the microbes' millennia-long survival may be their fellow captives -- algae, of a group called Dunaliella...

With the discovery of a potential energy source trapped alongside the bacteria, it has begun to emerge that, like an outlandish Dr. Seuss invention (hello, Who-ville), these tiny chambers could house entire, microscopic ecosystems...

Of the 900 crystal samples Schubert tested, only five produced living bacteria. However, Schubert said, microbes are picky. Most organisms can't be cultured in the lab, so there could be many living microbes that just didn't like their new home enough to reproduce.

[STD]

Must be responsible for that blue green cast to Husseins skin color. Positively, a ‘Living Dead’ cast member. Too bad we can’t send him to Hollywood yet.

[curmudgeonII]

Sorry, the word bacteria is a plural [singular = bacterium]. Don't say "bacteria....is".

[Tallguy]

It’s living in Pelosi’s brain.

LOL! Nope! Nothing lives in Pelosi's brain!

[colorado tanker]

Whatever you do, don't let one of these get on your hand.

[SunkenCiv]

That’s an interesting datum.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks for the condiment, er, compliment. :’)