Subject: Re: Amber

From: [email-masked] (PeterWRowe)
Date: 24 May 1995 01:07:37 -0400

> Basically the researcher
>claims that bacteria (in this case 25 million years old from  >Dominican
Republic) encysted in bee guts can be revived!  Cool if >true, but if it
turns out to be contamination, it'll be the cold fusion of >microbiology  
 B-

Saw additional coverage in Science News of this interesting story.  The
researchers, it seems, actually did this first several years ago (I think,
don't have the article in front of me), but have delayed publication in
order to go through a whole lot of verification and checks against
contamination.  The S.N. article gave me the impression that peer reviews
of this work have been generally favorable, and that the controls followed
have been rigorous.  One interesting note, they did a gene sequence of the
revived strain in order to compare it with a modern strain of the same
bacteria, common to bees, it seems.  Variances (mutations since the
ancient bacteria encysted) seem to prove quite convincingly that the
revived strain is not due to contamination.  It's also interesting to note
that this makes those encysted and revived bacteria BY FAR the oldest know
living organisms on the planet.  As to the relevence of amber, the
preservative and drying properties of amber are well documented, and
aparently played an enormous role in alowing the cysts (and enclosed DNA)
to resist degredation.  Whether or not this will increase the popularity
of amber remains to be seen, but I'd rather expect it's effect to be
minor.  The general population does not, as a rule, buy jewelry based on
news from the frontiers of science.  How many ladies have you seen wearing
earring depicting, for example, the space shuttle (Yeah I know there are a
few of this one, but not many),  or the latest weather sattelite?  Not to
mention a biochemical development that requires something like high school
reading ability to comprehend as opposed to the 8th grade level or
whatever it is that most  public reading material seems to cater to.

Peter Rowe