Ben Mulry
Stop me if you’ve seen this movie before. Scientists find an old object they don’t know that much about and decide to study it. Upon realizing it may contain some form of life they are not experts on, they want to further study this life by releasing it. Fantastic idea and it always ends so well.
Anyways, some scientists at West Virginia University were studying old salt crystals found in Australia where they observed some shapes in the liquid where the salt grew that look like microorganisms. That salt liquid had been untouched, which means this habitat is over 830 million years old.
While it seems crazy something might be alive in the salt, apparently the science is there to back it up. (Don’t ask me to explain it though)
Even the article I got this info from seems unconvinced that openening the crystal and seeing if these organisms can be awakened is a good idea. They pointed out that the pandemic we’re still dealing with was caused by microorganisms, but the scientists are confident nothing bad will happen.
I’m no scientist, I’m sure this blog proves it, but I’ve seen this movie many times. Who knows what types of bacteria and other harmful things were around that long ago and how they could interact with human bodies.
Information to write this piece was obtained from NPR
