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- Russian scientists have relaunched tiny worms that had been frozen for 42,000 years.
- After being removed from Siberian permafrost, the worms were gradually thawed in a laboratory. started to move and consume food.
- Scientists say their discoveries could have implications for astrobiology and cryomedicine.
A group of Russian scientists successfully relaunched two tiny species to which they found suspended in a piece of Siberian permafrost.
Worms, known as nematodes or more commonly roundworms, have been frozen up to 42,000 years, since a time when much of the planet was ice-covered.
But they were not dead – they were simply kept on the cyrogenetic plane.
The researchers brought the worms back to a laboratory, where they slowly thawed them for several weeks. Researchers place them in Petri dishes with food, stored at 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit)
While warming up, worms begin to show signs of life, while eating. This marks the first time that multicellular organisms have returned to functioning after being frozen in permafrost.
The researchers published their findings in the journal Doklady Biological Sciences in May, and the study became available online this month. In the report, the authors acknowledge that certain types of bacteria, algae, yeasts, seeds and spores have remained viable even after being frozen in permafrost for thousands, even millions of years . But an organism as complex as the nematode has never been shown to be able to do that.
Until now, the longest nematodes had been dormant and then relaunched was 39, according to Science Alert. Similarly, frozen tardigrades for 30 years have been brought back to life by Japanese researchers in 2016, as Gizmodo pointed out.
Permafrost samples were from the remote region of Yakutia in Siberia. The researchers analyzed more than 300 samples and selected two that contained well-preserved nematodes. One of the samples measured 100 feet deep and would have frozen 32,000 years ago, while the other was a little over 11 feet deep and froze 42,000 years ago.
Scientists have stated that they can not rule out the possibility that samples have been contaminated at a more recent time, but they said that they have kept the experiment as well. as sterile as possible. So, the most likely explanation is that worms have been resuscitated after being frozen for millennia.
Nematodes are impressive small worms, although they measure less than 1 millimeter in diameter. They were found living nearly a mile below the surface of the Earth, and some even adapted to live inside the intestines, according to Live Science.
The Russian team noted in the paper that their findings could have implications for astrobiology – the search for life outside of our planet – as well as cryomedicine and cryobiology. life.
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