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Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life

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Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life

#81

Post by viach »

prolikewh0a wrote: post #57
marzell wrote: post #26

For anyone wondering about previous precedents for reviving frozen multicellular creatures, here's my response to a now-deleted comment: There are shorter-term examples of frogs [0] (up to a few years) and tardigrades [1] (30 years) but I haven't heard of anything on this timescale before. [0] http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-alaskan-... [1] https://www.theverge.com/2016/1/18/10785002/water-bear-ta…

Tardigrades are hardcore. From Wikipedia: Tardigrades are considered to be able to survive even complete global mass extinction events due to astrophysical events, such as gamma-ray bursts, or large meteorite impacts. Some of them can withstand extremely cold temperatures down to 1 K (−458 °F; −272 °C) (close to absolute zero), while others can withstand extremely hot temperatures up to 420 K (300 °F; 150 °C) for sev…

Awesome. This is how Trisolarians might look like.

Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life

#82

Post by matte_black »

jibal wrote: post #64
matte_black wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, if such a woman had been unfrozen, would she be too important of a scientific discovery to ever be allowed to live a normal human life again? Would she just be a research subject quarantined and experimented on for the rest of her days?

Experimented on? Seriously? The modern world does not operate according to Dr. Mengele's ethics. Anyone "experimenting on" her would receive worldwide condemnation and all sorts of criminal charges. (Why, other than personal animus, would this be downvoted?)

Because it’s naive.

You think a 42,000 year old living human is just going to be left alone? There’s too much we can learn across a variety of subject matter to let that opportunity go to waste.

Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life

#83

Post by F_r_k »

viach wrote: post #81
prolikewh0a wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tardigrades are hardcore. From Wikipedia: Tardigrades are considered to be able to survive even complete global mass extinction events due to astrophysical events, such as gamma-ray bursts, or large meteorite impacts. Some of them can withstand extremely cold temperatures down to 1 K (−458 °F; −272 °C) (close to absolute zero), while others can withstand extremely hot temperatures up to 420 K (300 °F; 150 °C) for sev…

Awesome. This is how Trisolarians might look like.

For those who don't catch it, it's from the "the three body problem" book. I highly recommend it to anyone if you like a techy sci fi with philosophical questions.

Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life

#85

Post by singularity2001 »

prolikewh0a wrote: post #57
marzell wrote: post #26

For anyone wondering about previous precedents for reviving frozen multicellular creatures, here's my response to a now-deleted comment: There are shorter-term examples of frogs [0] (up to a few years) and tardigrades [1] (30 years) but I haven't heard of anything on this timescale before. [0] http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-alaskan-... [1] https://www.theverge.com/2016/1/18/10785002/water-bear-ta…

Tardigrades are hardcore. From Wikipedia: Tardigrades are considered to be able to survive even complete global mass extinction events due to astrophysical events, such as gamma-ray bursts, or large meteorite impacts. Some of them can withstand extremely cold temperatures down to 1 K (−458 °F; −272 °C) (close to absolute zero), while others can withstand extremely hot temperatures up to 420 K (300 °F; 150 °C) for sev…

Unscientific trope of pure love: In German they are called Bärtierchen (lose translation: bear-thingies) whose name and appearance is reminiscent of gummy-bears.

Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life

#86

Post by jorvi »

F_r_k wrote: post #83
viach wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Awesome. This is how Trisolarians might look like.

For those who don't catch it, it's from the "the three body problem" book. I highly recommend it to anyone if you like a techy sci fi with philosophical questions.

Actually, its from a full trilogy: “The Three Body Problem”, “The Dark Forest” and “Death’s End”. Wonderful books and indeed wholly recommended to any sci-fi buff.

Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life

#87

Post by larrykwg »

singularity2001 wrote: post #85
prolikewh0a wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tardigrades are hardcore. From Wikipedia: Tardigrades are considered to be able to survive even complete global mass extinction events due to astrophysical events, such as gamma-ray bursts, or large meteorite impacts. Some of them can withstand extremely cold temperatures down to 1 K (−458 °F; −272 °C) (close to absolute zero), while others can withstand extremely hot temperatures up to 420 K (300 °F; 150 °C) for sev…

Unscientific trope of pure love: In German they are called Bärtierchen (lose translation: bear-thingies) whose name and appearance is reminiscent of gummy-bears.

translates more like "bear animal" actually

Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life

#88

Post by ajuc »

Karishma1234 wrote: post #50

One 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.

It would be extremely unlikely for ancient (millions years old) organism to be better at penetrating human immune system than organisms that evolved in arms race with us.

It's like taking a DOS virus and expecting it to infect iphones :)

Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life

#89

Post by zaarn »

xevb3k wrote: post #17

I thought the half life of DNA was around 400 years. Anyone know how this is possible?

That is if completely unmaintained and under much worse conditions.

Bacteria in the permafrost have been found to have been repairing their DNA for almost half a million years. IIRC they aren't really active, they don't reproduce at all, only a very minimal level of metabolism is maintained to repair occuring damage in the cell.

The Worms could be similar. Being frozen, they merely shut down everything but the absolute minimum of metabolism, likely powered by minute temperature differences or incoming light from the outside or many of the other options, just enough to keep the DNA and cell intact, the worm itself would likely be considered dead in it's frozen state.

But they are waiting.

Re: Worms frozen in permafrost for up to 42,000 years come back to life

#90

Post by zaarn »

omeid2 wrote: post #76
lucasgonze wrote: post #70

Likely the oldest living creatures in 3 billion years of life on earth.

You wish —jellyfish. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_dohrnii

I don't think any of them survived that long. Current record holders are some bacteria in the Russian permafrost with half a million years (without reproduction in the meantime)
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