More extremophiles
Researchers in Antarctica have resuscitated 3000 year old microbes from ice cores taken at Lake Vida in the McMurdo Dry Valley area. Lake Vida is a super-salty body of water located about 19 meters below the surface of the ice. Due to the large quantities of salt in the water it remains liquid at temperatures below -10 degrees Celsius. The ice cores were sampled from the ice above the lake to investigate its sedimentary history. Very well preserved microbes were found within the cores at a depth that suggests that they might have been suspended in the ice for almost 3000 years. Since they were successfully thawed, researchers believe that they might be genetically specialized to survive periodic freezes and to revive when immersed in liquid water. Thanks to the dry cold of the area, the DNA from organisms has been very well preserved, and will assist researchers in developing a better view of the evolution and history of the microorganisms in the lake. In addition, such information might help us to imagine what types of organisms still do exist within other ice trapped lakes in the Antractic, and that could possibly survive in a place like Mars.
current science news posted by Kirsten at 12/17/2002 12:06:00 PM
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