Bug resurrected after 120,000 years
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Scientists have brought a newly-discovered bug back to life after more than 120,000 years in hibernation. It raises hopes that dormant life might be revived on Mars.
The tiny purple microbe, dubbed called Herminiimonas glaciei, lay trapped beneath nearly two miles of ice in Greenland. It took 11 months to revive it by gently warming it in an incubator.
Finally the bug sprang back to life and began producing fresh colonies of purple brown bacteria.
Space scientists are excited by the find because it suggests alien creatures might be resurrected on other frozen worlds - especially the Red Planet.
NASA revealed in January that plumes of methane on Mars could be from living organisms. Some scientists believe that any microbes are lying dormant beneath thick underground ice on the Red Planet. A future space mission could dig them up and bring them back to life.
A European orbiting spacecraft, Mars Express, has identified other regions that may have sheltered primitive forms of alien life.
The new Earth bug was found by Dr Jennifer Loveland-Curtze and a team of scientists from Pennsylvania State University.
The team showed great patience in coaxing the dormant microbe back to life. First they incubated their samples at 2˚C (two degrees C) for seven months and then at 5˚C (five degrees C) for a further four and a half months, after which colonies of very small purple-brown bacteria were seen.
The H. glaciei microbe is tiny - ten to 50 times smaller than E. coli. Experts say its small size probably helped it to survive in the liquid veins among ice crystals and the thin liquid film on their surfaces.
Dr Loveland-Curtze says that similar microorganisms could exist on other worlds and studying them in extreme conditions on Earth may provide insight into what sorts of life forms could survive elsewhere in the solar system.
She told Skymania News: "Many scientists consider polar ice on Earth as the best analogue of any extraterrestrial life on other planets, especially where ice has been detected. Polar ice on Earth can preserve microbial cells and nucleic acids for hundreds of thousands of years. Microbial cells have been cultivated from 750,000 years old earth ice and several million years old permafrost." But she added: " At this moment we can not say whether any cells, if they exist, can be revived from Mars."
Earlier bugs found in the Canadian Arctic were brought back to life after 30,000 years. A leading UK Mars scientist believes Martian microbes may also be dormant and waiting to be revived.
Dr John Murray, of the UK's Open University and a lead scientist for Europe's Mars Express mission, has discovered compelling evidence of a vast frozen ocean beneath the dust near the martian equator where simple life could have thrived as microbes.
Picture: The newly found Greenland bug viewed through a powerful microscope. (Photo: Penn State).
* Discover space for yourself and do fun science with a telescope. Here is Skymania's advice on how to choose a telescope. We also have a guide to the different types of telescope available.
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6 Comments
Add CommentThis makes one wonder if pathogenic species are awaiting the melting of permafrost, to recolonise the planet?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBug resurrected after 120,000 years
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRAID!
If there is any realistic chance at all that there is life on Mars, then it is imperative that humans NOT go there--both to avoid contaminating Mars with Earthly bugs and to avoid contaminating Earth with Martian bugs.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm not a biologist but I don't see why this can be considered a good thing. Let's say there are frozen microbes on Mars. Let's say we find and revive them. How do we know that's a wise choice. Indeed, is reviving bacteria that's 120K years old a wise thing for humans on Earth without knowing what they're going to eat?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI guess it depends if you believe the sci-fi movie recurring theme where the lesson drilled into us is that you never mess with alien or earth-based DNA or some brain sucking beast or biological threat will get you.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPersonally, I would feel much more comfortable reviving an organism that has proven in the past that it can "get along with others", it did not as far as we know, wipe out the planet. The genetic modifications going on now where genes are spliced from species to unrelated species to create glowing pets or plants with built in pesticides, have no such track record. I'd say that GM organisms are much more of a potential threat.
LeaderofMen, and others.. i think in a sci-fi movie, it'd be a horrible idea. but in reality, i think it'd be much safer. scientists keep things in containment..... i don't think they'd just release it into the wild. at least not until it was so extensively studied that we know practically everything about it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi find it hard to get excited about bacteria - i want to see the big grotesque or super friendly intelligent and peaceful, or scum bag fight'em or die aliens..... but you gotta admit, it's kinda cool