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_DictionaryGirl_

_DictionaryGirl_

NEWSWIRE

San Diego, CA

AUG 09, 2007 07:48 AM



One of the best things about science is that, in addition to discovering entirely new entities, there's always this tendency to re-discover very small and old things and find shiny new implications to make them sound devastatingly exciting all over again. Take bacteria, for example. Who likes bacteria? Pretty much no one. At best it's kind of slimy, and at worst you have chlamydia and meningitis at the same time. (And what are delicious dairy products, if not the exception that proves the rule?) But take that bacteria, throw it on the ice for a cool eight-million years, then bring it back to life like some kind of unicellular necromancer, and you've got yourself a pretty interesting situation.

An 8-million-year-old bacterium that was extracted from the oldest known ice on Earth is now growing in a laboratory, claim researchers.



The bacterium in question was extracted by Kay Bidle and a team of colleagues from Rutgers University, from ice some ten feet or so below the surface of an insanely ancient glacier between the Beacon and Mullins valleys in Antarctica. Once they had the ice, all chock full of bacteria and paleolithic animal DNA, they tried to make something spark back at the lab. I want to call their success surprising, but you never can tell with things kept frozen under ice. (Just ask one of those wily frozen wood frog motherfuckers.)

"We tried to grow them in media, and the young stuff grew really fast. We could plate them and isolate colonies," says Bidle. The cultures grown from organisms found in the 100,000-year-old ice doubled in size every 7 days on average.

Whereas the young ice contained a variety of microorganisms, the researchers found only one type of bacterium in the 8-million-year-old sample. It also grew in the laboratory but much more slowly, doubling only every 70 days.



That there's a significantly greater variation of bacteria in more recent ice samples shouldn't really be that surprising to anyone (theoretically speaking, anyway), but the potential for even the smallest bits of living things to just wake up after millions and millions of years of cryogenic sleep is quite enthralling. Also, kind of scary, when one considers the implications of this in conjunction with the state of our environment at the moment. We are reassured, however, that -- though it may be impossible to keep Jurassic Park ideas out of anyone's head -- at least we won't (read: shouldn't) have to worry about crazy moon diseases from the past, and even if we did, the diseases are allegedly all pretty senile and retarded at this point anyway.

By examining the average length of DNA fragments found in all the ice samples, the researchers determined that frozen DNA is progressively degraded as time passes. Its half life is 1.1 million years – that is, after 1.1 million years half the original DNA has been degraded. The researchers believe the DNA is degraded by cosmic rays, which are particularly strong at the poles where the Earth's magnetic field is at its weakest.

Paul Falkowski of Rutgers University, who led the study, describes the ancient bacteria as small round cells that had been in a "suspended state of animation for 8 million years". He says the increasingly rapid flow of glaciers into the ocean as a result of global warming could release new organisms into the sea but he does not believe this is cause for concern because marine bacteria and viruses are typically far less harmful to human health than, for instance, those found on land.



Superb! I'm convinced. Speaking of convinced, however, the article can't resist throwing in a sobering dose of reality at the end, saying that these ancient bacteria might not even really be ancient.

[Russell Vreeland of the Ancient Biomaterials Institute at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, US] says Falkowski has made a "fascinating discovery". But he says there is a chance the ancient bacteria are in fact very young. Ice, says Vreeland, is a very difficult material to work on without contaminating it. Falkowski's team treated their samples with 95 per cent ethanol and bleach, which Vreeland says are not effective sterilisers.



Oh please, talk about a prehistoric buzzkill. I'm holding out hope on this one, that scientific precision has prevailed against poor hygiene, and that the ancient bacterium doesn't turn out to just be halitosis. Perhaps it is selfish of me, yes, but I have a dream that where there are ancient reanimated bacteria, awesome ancient reanimated dinosaurs can't be far behind. Come on, intrepid researchers, don't let me down!

Hobartlemagne

Hobartlemagne

I'm lost
September 2006

AUG 09, 2007 08:37 AM

Maybe we can make a new flavor of cheese out of this new bacteria! wink

Quirky

Quirky

Birmingham, AL
October 2005

AUG 09, 2007 08:46 AM

Hobartlemagne said:
Maybe we can make a new flavor of cheese out of this new bacteria! wink



Or a new flavor of genocide!

xazapdmytinu

xazapdmytinu

Fort Collins, CO
July 2007

AUG 09, 2007 08:50 AM

one step closer to thawing Walt Disney's head so the company can continue destroying classic fairy tales properly.

on a side note, I think I'd really love to see a tag team match between Walt Disney's head in a robotic shell and John Lasseter/Brad Bird, it could be celebrity death match's comeback fight!

So, the fossilized bacteria from mars was a contaminated sample, this stuff may be a contaminated sample...when are we gonna learn that bacteria is everywhere? wink

DhD_No_Pants

DhD_No_Pants

Katy, TX
May 2006

AUG 09, 2007 08:55 AM

Does anyone ever wonder if they take ancient DNA and create shit all mad-laboratory style without telling the public? I do.

leavemehere

leavemehere

San Diego, CA
December 2002

AUG 09, 2007 08:56 AM

Last time someone dug something millions of years old out of the ice, it didn't turn out so good. biggrin

Cassiel

Cassiel

Aurora, CO
September 2004

AUG 09, 2007 10:50 AM

leavemehere said:
Last time someone dug something millions of years old out of the ice, it didn't turn out so good. biggrin



YES!!!

J24U

J24U

Danvers, MA
February 2006

AUG 09, 2007 11:33 AM

Cassiel said:

leavemehere said:
Last time someone dug something millions of years old out of the ice, it didn't turn out so good. biggrin



YES!!!



*sigh* they just don't make movies like that anymore.

Gerry_D

Gerry_D

Los Angeles, CA
May 2003

AUG 09, 2007 11:56 AM

J24U said:

Cassiel said:

leavemehere said:
Last time someone dug something millions of years old out of the ice, it didn't turn out so good. biggrin



YES!!!



*sigh* they just don't make movies like that anymore.



hmm - but maybe they will make reality even better

mlarosa26

mlarosa26

Fort Drum, NY
August 2007

AUG 09, 2007 01:36 PM

regardless if they plan on studying it, keep in the poles, extreme cold usually acts as a barrier against contamination slows growth. if that stuff got moved to a warmer climate, maybe nothing would happen, maybe its growth rate would drastically increase. personally if thats where it was found, it probably should stay there.

mingol

mingol

Singapore
July 2005

AUG 09, 2007 03:49 PM

The researchers believe the DNA is degraded by cosmic rays



Dude. It was cosmic rays that created the Fantastic Four. Who knows what has happened with these bacteria?!?

Orko27

Orko27

Lacey, WA
October 2004

AUG 09, 2007 04:04 PM

mingol said,

The researchers believe the DNA is degraded by cosmic rays



Dude. It was cosmic rays that created the Fantastic Four. Who knows what has happened with these bacteria?!?



I bet they only found one type of bacteria because the others had turned invisible.

mingol

mingol

Singapore
July 2005

AUG 09, 2007 04:08 PM

Orko27 said:

mingol said,

The researchers believe the DNA is degraded by cosmic rays


Dude. It was cosmic rays that created the Fantastic Four. Who knows what has happened with these bacteria?!?


I bet they only found one type of bacteria because the others had turned invisible.



Or transformed into living flame and FLOWN AWAY. eeek

Vidalia

Vidalia

SUICIDEGIRL

USA

AUG 09, 2007 11:30 PM

Being the nerd that I am,
I actually do find this exciting.

TheRedBaron

TheRedBaron

Cambridge, MA
November 2003

AUG 10, 2007 01:38 AM

mlarosa26 said:
regardless if they plan on studying it, keep in the poles, extreme cold usually acts as a barrier against contamination slows growth. if that stuff got moved to a warmer climate, maybe nothing would happen, maybe its growth rate would drastically increase. personally if thats where it was found, it probably should stay there.



It's damned unlikely (see: impossible) that bacteria which existed before any kind of modern animal physiology could be even REMOTELY as nasty as the stuff which is evolved specifically to fuck our shit up. Animals constantly adapt to resist parasitic infection, and the parasites keep getting better at it. Simply put, old bacteria brings a club to a crazy-lasers-in-space fight.

...To say nothing of that fact that only a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of existent bacteria infect things.

Srsly, don't worry.

Beelzebob8

Beelzebob8

I'm lost
August 2007

AUG 10, 2007 08:08 AM

surreal what ? me worry?......Alfred E Neuman

StarBelliedBoy

StarBelliedBoy

Philadelphia, PA
December 2003

AUG 10, 2007 08:13 AM

I, for one, welcome our new Captain Trips overlords!

quantumewok

quantumewok

Raleigh, NC
August 2007

AUG 10, 2007 08:22 AM





mingol said,

I bet they only found one type of bacteria because the others had turned invisible.




exactly

RudieCantFail

RudieCantFail

Baton Rouge, LA
January 2006

AUG 10, 2007 08:38 AM

StarBelliedBoy said:
I, for one, welcome our new Captain Trips overlords!



Fucker, you beat me to it tongue

Horrorflick

Horrorflick

Detroit, MI
February 2003

AUG 10, 2007 03:52 PM

leavemehere said:
Last time someone dug something millions of years old out of the ice, it didn't turn out so good. biggrin



Oh shit. Here we go...

DCruz

DCruz

Montreal-nord, QC
November 2006

AUG 10, 2007 04:50 PM

Vidalia said:
Being the nerd that I am,
I actually do find this exciting.



so do I ! I wonder what will eventually be found in all that ice and snow...

Sacrificial_Lamb

Sacrificial_Lamb

New Zealand
November 2005

AUG 10, 2007 05:11 PM

I personally am shocked and am starting a partition to free the poor captive bacteria. I will not rest till it infects everything

mlarosa26

mlarosa26

Fort Drum, NY
August 2007

AUG 14, 2007 07:56 PM

TheRedBaron said:

mlarosa26 said:
regardless if they plan on studying it, keep in the poles, extreme cold usually acts as a barrier against contamination slows growth. if that stuff got moved to a warmer climate, maybe nothing would happen, maybe its growth rate would drastically increase. personally if thats where it was found, it probably should stay there.



It's damned unlikely (see: impossible) that bacteria which existed before any kind of modern animal physiology could be even REMOTELY as nasty as the stuff which is evolved specifically to fuck our shit up. Animals constantly adapt to resist parasitic infection, and the parasites keep getting better at it. Simply put, old bacteria brings a club to a crazy-lasers-in-space fight.

...To say nothing of that fact that only a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of existent bacteria infect things.

Srsly, don't worry.




while your probably right, i'd rather not put it to the test.

mlarosa26

mlarosa26

Fort Drum, NY
August 2007

AUG 14, 2007 07:58 PM

leavemehere said:
Last time someone dug something millions of years old out of the ice, it didn't turn out so good. biggrin



you know as old as that movie is, thats a movie i just dont watch by myself. tongue