A colony of 80,000-year-old aspen trees in Utah, 400,000-year-old bacteria living in the Siberian permafrost and a shrub that has been self-propagating in Tasmania for 43,000 years are among the millennia-old organisms that photographer and writer Sussman traveled to seven continents to see. Her oversize book includes photographs, travel stories and interviews with scientists who study these impressive organisms.
This article was originally published with the title "The Oldest Living Things in the World" in Scientific American 310, 4, 86 (April 2014)
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0414-86c
ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
Clara Moskowitzis Scientific American's senior editor covering space and physics. She has a bachelor's degree in astronomy and physics from Wesleyan University and a graduate degree in science journalism from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Follow Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz Credit: Nick Higgins
