Well, that’s impressive. The bacterium Herminiimonas glaciei, so named because it was found 2 miles beneath a Greenland glacier, had been snoozing for about 120,000 years. Chilling out, you might say. Recovered by scientists via a deep bore (very deep), it was treated to a warm and cozy 36 degrees F in their lab for seven months. This got the bacterium’s attention. Another four months at an almost tropic 41 degrees made it positively frisky. So much so that it’s producing an extended family of like-minded bacteria.
These little guys are tough! 120,000 years under ice and still good to go. When you read about antibiotic resistant bacteria in hospitals and wonder just how strong they might be – this is a hint that they’re probably very tough indeed. It takes a lot to kill a strain of bacteria that’s spent some time evolving survival strategies.
What’s the good news takeaway from all this? Well, assuming mankind manages to mess up royally and kill off most all life on the planet, including all the people, it doesn’t mean it’s the end of life. The cousins of this bacteria will be waiting to evolve into new and wonderful life forms. Might take a heap of million years, but it’ll happen. Life will go on.
- And that’s today’s word from the bird
