Posted on 01/19/2011 5:36:07 PM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
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It’s living in Pelosi’s brain.
inbeforethehelenthomaspictures
Would it be too much to ask for them to leave it in there?
This story has 50’s horror flick written all over it.
That does it, I’m *not* comin’ back in here. ;’)
Pass the salt, please!
Okay, I was expecting Helen Thomas.
Some can't be cultured no matter where you stick them.
The bad news is the surviving bacteria have hypertension.
This story has 50’s horror flick written all over it.
but low cholesterol
“They thought it was dead...”
“They thought it was harmless...”
“They thought they could contain it...”
[Insert “Terminator” music here.]
“They thought it COULDN’T be a genetically engineered doomsday bio-weapon sent from the future to the past imprisoned in salt crystals in the vain hopes that it would die of age...”
Wow. I thought this would’ve been Post #2 or #3.
Shhhhhhhhh!!! Don’t tell Bill Clinton - he’ll want to “hit it”!!
I know i am shocked...
I hop this doesn’t mean that the big chunks of salt I brought back from the forty mile desert have bacteria living in them.
By the way, thanks for the pings - I really enjoy the articles you ping us to.
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