Ice age bacteria brought back to life

www.NewScientist.com ^ | 2/25/2005 | Kelly Young

[aimhigh]

A bacterium that sat dormant in a frozen pond in Alaska for 32,000 years has been revived by NASA scientists.

Once scientists thawed the ice, the previously undiscovered bacteria started swimming around on the microscope slide. The researchers say it is the first new species of microbe found alive in ancient ice. Now named Carnobacterium pleistocenium, it is thought to have lived in the Pleistocene epoch, a time when woolly mammoths still roamed the Earth.

NASA astrobiologist Richard Hoover, who led the team, said the find bolsters the case for finding life elsewhere in the universe, particularly given this week's news, broken by New Scientist, of frozen lakes just beneath the surface of equatorial Mars.

..Excerpt..

[aimhigh]

Ready for the next plague?

[nikos1121]

will the same science work to get hair growing again?

[nuffsenuff]

Please tell me they've destroyed it.

Please?

[BenLurkin]

They'll be sorrr-rryyy!

[tallhappy]

Why such initial negativity?

[RosieCotton]

My gosh...don't they know what could happen? Don't they watch X-Files???

[frogjerk]

Please tell me they've destroyed it.

Please?

I was thinking the same thing...

[job]

See Smilla's Sense of Snow.

[pabianice]

It's listed as having voted in Chicago as a Democrat last year...

[Finalapproach29er]

Incredible.

This could get very interesting.

[I Drive Too Fast]

Now named Carnobacterium pleistocenium, it is thought to have lived in the Pleistocene epoch, a time when woolly mammoths still roamed the Earth.

Would bringing this bacteria back to life be considered a "Mammoth" undertaking.

Time to watch "The Andromeda Strain" again.

[BostonianRightist]

Ping

[MadIvan]

The natural processes of this world took it out of circulation for a reason. Sometimes scientists truly irritate me.

Regards, Ivan

[frogjerk]

Ice age bacteria brought back to life

You mean, the bacteria was DEAD and scientists reanimated the bacteria?

I think the article should have said "Ice age bacteria thawed"

[mysterio]

A scientist grew bacillus isolated from the salt crystals of an ancient sea bed. The bacillus sample was 250 million years old. That's the current record holder.

[Willie Green]

It's a miracle that it managed to survive.
Geeez, the Engangered Species Act wasn't passed until 1973.
How could it go for thousands of years without Government protection?

[Little Pig]

Revitalized or revived would probably be a better term.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT