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Hollywood has had the opportunity to prove it many times, millennia-old ice can contain many dangers. And even if, on paper, the cinema seems to run a tad, the melting ice and mining have had the opportunity to tackle enough permafrost to worry many scientists. After the giant virus discovered in 2014, it was the turn of 42,000-year-old worms to be liberated. Two of these nematode worms have been brought back to life, making them the oldest living beings to date.
Nematode worms tens of thousands of years old
In Siberia, a team of Russian scientists has managed to bring back to life two nematode worms trapped in ice since 32,000 years ago (found at 30 meters deep) and 41 700 years (recovered at 3.5 meters depth). The study, published in the journal Doklady Biological Sciences, was conducted in collaboration with Princeton University. By thawing the ice samples, the researchers found more than 300 nematodes. On the roundworm of roundworms, two showed "signs of viability". Scientists placed them in a nutrient-rich environment that included agar and E. coli bacteria to feed them.
A collaborative team of @GeosciencesPU and Russian researchers has revived nematodes that have been frozen since the Pleistocene. (via @siberian_times ) https://t.co/ZaaRVuVlG4 pic.twitter.com/8Ecw3xVEIm
– Princeton University (@Princeton) July 30, 2018
Several weeks later, worm metabolism showed signs of recovery. To rebadure the most skeptical, the researchers badured to have respected a sterilization strict, preventing any external contamination. Russian scientists have pointed out that these worms can not dig as deeply into the ice and have not, by deduction, been able to be introduced externally into the samples.
"Our discovery shows the ability of multicellular organisms to survive a cryopreservation of several thousand years"
This biological feat raises the debate about the possibilities of human cryopreservation. Although this practice is prohibited in France, it is possible in the United States. At the end of 2016, in the United Kingdom, a British judge authorized the cryopreservation of a 14-year-old girl suffering from a very rare form of cancer. Since current science does not effectively treat her illness, she wanted to be cryopreserved before being brought back from the dead to be healed. As a reminder, cryogenizing a living being is forbidden. The subject must be declared clinically dead for the process to begin.
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