Field of Science

Doesn't that just frost your cake?

Seeds, once in the possession of the Phactor, seem to have a viablity half-life in terms of hours or days.  And the more important they are for your research, the sooner their viability disappears completely.  And then you try to store items of short shelf-life in your freezer only to find them dehydrated beyond any ability to resurrect them.  Now using tissue culture, a Frankensteinian technology, Russian scientists have succeeded in growing a plant from 30,000 yr old seeds frozen in perma-frost.  They did not report that a container of inedible frozen squash was found right next to the seeds. While the seeds were not directly viable, they contained viable tissue, but this is pretty remarkable longevity of frozen tissue.  In this case the plant is a species of Silene (cy-lean-ee)(the radio announcer pronouced it cy-lean just moments ago) that still exists, although small differences can be seen.  In other words, it has changed a bit over 30,000 years.  Now let's do something really cool and revive the wooly mammoth. Have they found any of its seeds? 

No comments: