8 million yr old frozen bacteria revived - (?)

[Guest guest]

http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070806/full/070806-4.html

Investigation into ancient viable bacteria has gone on for decades, as

reviewed extensively by R Morita.

A recent promontory in this debate involved the reviving of cells from

ancient amber. This was published in Science... so it may or may not

have been true, but certainly wasn't a load of crap. Lots of people

were unconvinced, citing contamination and theoretic concerns over the

availability of energy for DNA repair, since some spontaneous DNA

degradations such as depurination proceed relatively rapidly under

physiologic conditions. It's possible the bioenergetic concerns could

be answered by trace metabolism supported by assimilation of trace

organic molecules.

I don't know quite what to think of the whole thing, but if true it

sure illustrates the resilience of nonmetabolising bacteria.