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..

[Lazamataz]

Isn't that something of a lesbian establishment?

Not when I visited, as far as I could tell.

Does it involve hirstute women wearing Birkenstocks? If so, I'll pass.

No, it involves shapely women wearing nearly nothing.

[MadIvan]

No, it involves shapely women wearing nearly nothing.

Somehow I doubt this - if this were the case, you would still be there, I think. :)

Regards, Ivan

[hophead]

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

I just heard that it has been declared as the "First Democrat".

[massgopguy]

Don't tell me you're afraid of a little Andromeda Strain.

[hattend]

Ping to #45

[Lazamataz]

Somehow I doubt this - if this were the case, you would still be there, I think. :)

Two things stopped me: 1) I needed to get back to my girl, and 2) the school year would have ended eventually. :o)

[sportutegrl]

Someone else actually watched that yawn festival?

[MadIvan]

Two things stopped me: 1) I needed to get back to my girl, and 2) the school year would have ended eventually

Alas. But there are such things as "continuing education".

Regards, Ivan

[Stonewall Jackson]

Sounds like the plot of a book I read a few weeks ago, The Plague Tales. The book dealt with a team of archaeologists in England accidentally digging up a plague victim from the original Black Death outbreak back in the 1300's and unleashing some of the bacterium, which is much more potent than the version of the plague that is wandering around today.

This could have been a great book, but the author killed it by bouncing back and forth between the present day and the 1300's, with a part of the story set in ancient times just wandering around without any rhyme or reason.

[windcliff]

I could use a mammoth. I have alot of chores to do ala The Flintstones.

[southernnorthcarolina]

This would seem a pretty good indication that NASA is over-funded.

Having spent billions to demonstrate that some rocks on Mars are reddish brown while others are brownish red, my guess is that with space exploration in a bit of a lull, they were in a "spend it or lose it" mode. Hence, a critical mission of bringing ancient microbes in Alaskan glaciers back to life.

NASA has traditionally gotten a pass from conservatives, who prefer to rail at "entitlement" spending, silly rail transit schemes, education expenses for illegal immigrants, foreign aid to countries who hate us, public broadcasting, and so on. It's long past time to pressure NASA to provide justification for its extravagant ways, and to wield a big budgetary ax.

[Barney59]

Wow, Miss Krump!

[null and void]

You say that like it's a BAD thing...

[Phsstpok]

Ready for the next plague?

There is a short story I read years ago about a scientist, on his own, drilling down into a unique bit of amber with what appears to be a multi-million year old remnant of some unknown animal embedded in it. Turns out that immediately on penetrating the amber he is felled by the virus still embedded in that tissue fragment. Within only a few days 99% of all life on Earth is wiped out.

The next scene in the story is some far future very non-human intelligent life form beginning work on a bit of tissue embedded in amber in a lab several million years in the future...

[neverdem]

bump for later

[Centurion2000]

Please tell me they used a BL-4 lab to isolate this puppy.

[TalBlack]

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

None of these guys has ever gone to the movies--none of them. Probably learned all they know about bacteria from a University somwhere. Fools!

[RosieCotton]

None of these guys has ever gone to the movies--none of them. Probably learned all they know about bacteria from a University somwhere. Fools!

*shakes head sadly*

Yep.

[neverdem]

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.

[hinckley buzzard]

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

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


I think they just turn into a virtually indestructible spore and can last indefinitely. Weird little f*ers.
Take one apart ("for the science") and give the rest a bath in clorox.