So these are probably the oldest living organisms in existence then, huh? I'm not aware of anything that's older than 42000 years, but I'd be amazed to be wrong :)
Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life
41–50 of 159 posts
Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life
#42I thought the half life of DNA was around 400 years. Anyone know how this is possible?
Halflife under normal circumstances. Deepfreezing it is not the usual for DNA. Just like your meat and vegetables are still edible when you freeze them a year later and spoil in a matter of hours or days at higher temperatures. http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2012/10... So that's at 13.1 degrees, quote from the end of that paper: "Our results indicate that short fragments of DNA could be present…
Since (some) nematodes eat poop, could we get viable megafauna DNA this way?
Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
What does it mean for a reanimated woman from 42000 years ago to live a "normal" life in modern times?
Many have wondered the same. I personally think Brandon Frasier's perspective in the film, "Encino Man," was quite apt.
The late Phil Hartman’s exploration as Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer was also trenchant and emotionally gripping
Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life
#44Am I the only one thinking of demolition man right now?
I'm more "Encino Man" here..
Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life
#45I misread the title as "Woman frozen ..." and mentally prepared myself for some existentially shattering shit.
Thats gotta be some optical illusion thing.
When you skim headlines instead of reading them, your brain makes guesses at the words instead of actually reading each letter, as a speed hack.
It's also used as a crutch when your eyesight slowly degrades over the years.
Sometimes it leads to Freudian slips, other times, you just expect to read about people instead of worms.
Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life
#46> Some 300 prehistoric worms were analysed - and two ‘were shown to contain viable nematodes’. This sounds like 300 non-nematode worms were examined, and two of them contained viable nematodes as parasites. Is that correct? Because everything else in the article sounds like the nematodes are the worms, rather than were in the worms. It's a tiny detail, but it's bugging me.
Yes, poor article, it's not 300 worms but 300 permafrost samples, of which two contained an unspecified number of viable nematodes : https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1134%2FS00124966180... > We analyzed more than 300 samples of permafrost deposits of different ages and origins, buried soils and fossil rodent burrows. Two samples were shown to contain viable nematodes.
It does say “They are both believed to be female,” so, unless it’s a translation error, it’s referring to 2 worms, not 2 samples.
Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life
#47I misread the title as "Woman frozen ..." and mentally prepared myself for some existentially shattering shit.
I did the exact same thing, but tweeted about it* instead of saying it here. https://mobile.twitter.com/doreen_michele/status/10226461705...
I guess you’ve kinda said it here as well ;)
Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
What does it mean for a reanimated woman from 42000 years ago to live a "normal" life in modern times?
Many have wondered the same. I personally think Brandon Frasier's perspective in the film, "Encino Man," was quite apt.
I doubt she would be able to learn to communicate at all, assuming this hypothetical frozen woman was and adult.
Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
What does it mean for a reanimated woman from 42000 years ago to live a "normal" life in modern times?
Many have wondered the same. I personally think Brandon Frasier's perspective in the film, "Encino Man," was quite apt.
You can also watch Torchwood episode on this topic. It was beautiful.
Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life
#50One thing that I have always worried about Antartic ice melting and unleashing some ancient black death like plague for which we dont have any immunity.