Frozen in Siberian Permafrost for 24,000 Years, Microscopic Animal Comes to Life(gizmodo.com)
gizmodo.com
Frozen in Siberian Permafrost for 24,000 Years, Microscopic Animal Comes to Life
https://gizmodo.com/frozen-in-siberian-permafrost-for-24-000-years-microsc-1847045211
20 comments
They already studied this. It sometimes worked with small animals like mice, but fails as organisms get larger. There was a really interesting video about how microwaves were first used to test this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tdiKTSdE9Y
Came here to post this link - quite a fascinating interview with James Lovelock
I know it may be a little nitpicking, but viruses are not technically alive.
Also, the fact that this multicellular organism can withstand long term freezing bears nothing about whether people can do that.
I can think of two easy arguments:
1. If you think about this single organism, imagine there must have probably been a huge number of them frozen and maybe 1 in a million or billion survived (we don't really know from the article).
Now, for a simple organism it might be fine, it is enough for one in billion to live and start spreading, but the same cannot be said about human. You need every single cell in our organism very, very high chance of surviving to even talk about entire human to be able to survive.
2. Another problem might be central nervous system. It does not seem currently possible to bring back a person that has completely "flattened out" when it comes to their brain. A person with no brain activity is legally dead and no single case of bringing back to life from that point has ever been registered.
It is not known whether brain can be brought back at all once all signals stop.
I know this is pure conjecture, but I suspect it is possible that brain is a case of a system without a startup procedure. It only works as long as the process is continuing but if it stops there might be a bunch of catch-22 type situations which basically make it impossible to startup the brain.
Your PC is built with startup procedure in mind. Now think what if you have removed everything that is needed for your PC to start. You could have perfectly functional PC as long as it is in operation, but once you shut down no way to bring it back, no software, hardware, procedure, API or anything to start the operation again.
Also, the fact that this multicellular organism can withstand long term freezing bears nothing about whether people can do that.
I can think of two easy arguments:
1. If you think about this single organism, imagine there must have probably been a huge number of them frozen and maybe 1 in a million or billion survived (we don't really know from the article).
Now, for a simple organism it might be fine, it is enough for one in billion to live and start spreading, but the same cannot be said about human. You need every single cell in our organism very, very high chance of surviving to even talk about entire human to be able to survive.
2. Another problem might be central nervous system. It does not seem currently possible to bring back a person that has completely "flattened out" when it comes to their brain. A person with no brain activity is legally dead and no single case of bringing back to life from that point has ever been registered.
It is not known whether brain can be brought back at all once all signals stop.
I know this is pure conjecture, but I suspect it is possible that brain is a case of a system without a startup procedure. It only works as long as the process is continuing but if it stops there might be a bunch of catch-22 type situations which basically make it impossible to startup the brain.
Your PC is built with startup procedure in mind. Now think what if you have removed everything that is needed for your PC to start. You could have perfectly functional PC as long as it is in operation, but once you shut down no way to bring it back, no software, hardware, procedure, API or anything to start the operation again.
> I know it may be a little nitpicking, but viruses are not technically alive.
this is not a settled argument...
https://askabiologist.asu.edu/questions/are-viruses-alive
this is not a settled argument...
https://askabiologist.asu.edu/questions/are-viruses-alive
> It is not known whether brain can be brought back at all once all signals stop.
This is incorrect. In a brain-dead patient, the isoelectric EEG serves to demonstrate the absence of brain activity despite adequate perfusion and absence of sedation, i.e, even though the computer is plugged in and you've pressed the start button, nothing happens, and thus, nothing is likely to happen in the future.
Isoelectric EEG can be induced with propofol and barbiturates, either voluntarily (refractory epilepsy) or involuntarily (anesthesia), without any obvious ill effects once the sedation is off.
This is incorrect. In a brain-dead patient, the isoelectric EEG serves to demonstrate the absence of brain activity despite adequate perfusion and absence of sedation, i.e, even though the computer is plugged in and you've pressed the start button, nothing happens, and thus, nothing is likely to happen in the future.
Isoelectric EEG can be induced with propofol and barbiturates, either voluntarily (refractory epilepsy) or involuntarily (anesthesia), without any obvious ill effects once the sedation is off.
> > It is not known whether brain can be brought back at all once all signals stop.
> This is incorrect.
Can you point to evidence where it is known if a brain can be restarted? Commenter said it's not known, you said it's untrue that it's not known, and stated that a brain can be made quiescent artificially or as a part of a neuralogical disorder and recover on it's own, but failed to provide evidence that we have a scientifically proven method to restart a brain.
Can you point to evidence where it is known if a brain can be restarted? Commenter said it's not known, you said it's untrue that it's not known, and stated that a brain can be made quiescent artificially or as a part of a neuralogical disorder and recover on it's own, but failed to provide evidence that we have a scientifically proven method to restart a brain.
I am not sure I understand the question. The brain "restarts" by itself if its otherwise normal and perfused.
The brain is like RAM. Once you power it off all information is lost. Maybe there will be a way to restore it with somekind of device in the future.
This is only partially correct. The brain encodes a lot of information in the actual hardware connections. So it's not obvious that you can't get at least a partial boot of the brain from flatline.
TV series Fortitude (2015) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3498622 explores this kind of scenario happening on Svalbard, highly recommended. Features blindsight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindsight as a plot device
Smilla's Sense of Snow was also similar
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120152/
Season 1 was great but didn't care for season 2.
This is wild. Absolutely wild. And I think it says a lot about what we might find on Mars. The only thing cooler than reviving an ancient microorganism is reviving an ancient Martian life form.
as much as tardigrades get great press, I really prefer rotifers, especially bdelloid rotifers. A few months ago I noticed some nice sludge on a deck chair that was wet, it was full of rotifers (probably 10 for every tardigrade). They are actively hunting, in a way that is much more interesting than watching a tardigrade. A few days later the sludge had dried out to a powder. If I add water to that powder, in 5-10 minutes, tehre are rotifers swimming around, hunting.
Maybe it is not bats we should be worried about
Well, of course is a rotifer...
Cool. What could possibly go wrong, right. I mean it would be pitty if all our masks and social-distance training go to waste now. So let's unfreeze some very old microorganisms and see what pathogens we can find amongst them.
In the other direction, we can contemplate the fact that, if this multicellular organism can withstand such long-term freezing, so can we. Interstellar (much slower than light speed) travel, here we come!