dasa 0 Report post Posted May 3, 2002 Alive...after 250 million years Ancient bacteria trapped in a state of suspended animation for 250 million years are the world's oldest living things, claim US scientists. The bacteria were found in salt crystals buried almost 2,000 feet below ground at a cavern in south-east New Mexico, US. We're 250-million-years and counting as far as the survival of an organism goes in a crystal. Dr Russell Vreeland Bacteria are known to adapt to harsh conditions by forming resistant structures called spores. They can exist in a state of suspended animation for long periods. Dr Russell Vreeland, from West Chester University, Pennsylvania, and colleagues, made the latest discovery. "There are a lot of people who believe that organisms can survive long-term, particularly the spores themselves," Dr Vreeland told BBC News Online. "We have provided the strongest evidence that in fact these things could survive for extremely long periods of time. The crystals were in a drill sample taken from an air intake shaft at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), the world's first underground dump for radioactive waste left over from making nuclear weapons. When they were extracted from the crystals in a laboratory and placed in a nutrient solution, the micro-organisms revived and began to grow. The bacterium, known as Bacillus strain 2-9-3, resembles modern-day Bacillus organisms found in the Dead Sea. In this study, reported in the journal Nature, the authors took steps to minimise the risk of contamination from ubiquitous modern-day bacteria by sterilising the surface of the crystal. They said the chance that the Bacillus strain 2-9-3 came from some external source was about one in a billion. But independent experts said the team's findings would have to be replicated by other researchers before it could be fully accepted. [This message has been edited by dasa (edited 05-03-2002).] Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
