Not now, Science, not now...

[mccardey]

100-milllion-year-old bacteria have been found and revived.

All I'm saying is that 2020 might not be the best year for this sort of thing...

 

[MaeZe]

And here I was thinking what great material for a sci-fi book.

 

[ChaseJxyz]

Considering that's about when placentals were still shrews hiding in holes and sauropods were at their biggest, I think modern species such as H. sapiens will be okay. It would be interesting to know how they're different from modern microbes; I'll try digging through that journal later.

 

[Helix]

Considering that's about when placentals were still shrews hiding in holes and sauropods were at their biggest, I think modern species such as H. sapiens will be okay. It would be interesting to know how they're different from modern microbes; I'll try digging through that journal later.

The link is here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17330-1 (It's open access.)

The important bit is that they're in sediments up to 101.5 million years old. The youngest sediments are around 4.3 million years and they're from the middle of the Pacific Ocean. But this is 2020 and...well...yanno...

 

[mccardey]

This thread is getting away from me, isn't it?

 

[Albedo]

The next step is to find out what they taste like. hey, I don't make the science rules.

 

[Snitchcat]

So, who's volunteering to lick the samples?

 

[Friendly Frog]

I remember reading a very hilarious yet informative list (I think somewhere on tumblr) which considered the results of licking in which different fields of science. I vaguely remember that (paraphrasing) geology was 'go ahead' and epidemiology was 'God, please NO.'

As for reviving ancient tissue, I'm still waiting for my mammoth.

 

[Snitchcat]

I remember reading a very hilarious yet informative list (I think somewhere on tumblr) which considered the results of licking in which different fields of science. I vaguely remember that (paraphrasing) geology was 'go ahead' and epidemiology was 'God, please NO.'

As for reviving ancient tissue, I'm still waiting for my mammoth.

Not the exact list you probably had in mind, but: https://imgur.com/r/tumblr/J4iHB7k

 

[Chris P]

That definitely would be part of a paleo diet.

 

[Kjbartolotta]

I'm fine with it. If it ends up consuming us for biomass then that's 2020 for ya and no harm no foul.

 

[Ari Meermans]

I'm fine with it. If it ends up consuming us for biomass then that's 2020 for ya and no harm no foul.

That's more or less my feeling on the matter, too, and I can just hear the conversation now:

"Welp, Bud, looks like the Great Apes are a bust, too."

"Looks like it. Do you think maybe the seventh time's the charm or do we mark the joint down for a bad job and take the loss?"

 

[Introversion]

Those bacteria are pretty old, they’re probably at high risk for COVID...

 

[Friendly Frog]

Not the exact list you probably had in mind, but: https://imgur.com/r/tumblr/J4iHB7k

If it's not the one I remember, it's a very close cousin. Thanks for finding it, still fun to read.

 

[jjdebenedictis]

The next step is to find out what they taste like. hey, I don't make the science rules.

According to one of my family members, for certain branches of science, this is a common hazing ritual inflicted on you by your fellow grad students rule. You're expected to know what your "project" tastes like, where your project is usually a type of snail or something.

 

[Helix]

*snail expert rushes in*

It's true.

 

[GailD]

We're doomed!

 

[Friendly Frog]

While I concur, I have been told that without inadverted tasting of lab products we would not have one or two artificial sweeteners we now have today as they had not been the original intended research subject.

Whether that is a bad thing or a good thing, I leave for others to decide.