Scientists have stumbled upon an exciting find — microbes from the Jurassic era are still alive in salt crystals.
Eighteen years ago, “Jurassic Park” thrilled the world with the idea that dinosaurs could be resurrected from bits of DNA preserved in mosquitoes trapped in ancient amber. Ever since the movie’s release, scientists have been finding that parts of this scenario are closer to reality than anyone ever imagined, the journal Nature reports.
In 2000, microbiologist Russell Vreeland of West Chester University in Pennsylvania and his colleagues found a 250-million-year-old bacterium — still alive — inside a tiny droplet of water in a salt crystal.
Although the find was controversial, further studies have found evidence of other bugs called archaea surviving tens of thousands, if not millions, of years in salt crystals, according to a West Chester University statement. And just two years after the Vreeland study, Steven Fish, microbiologist at the University of Leicester in Britain and colleagues reported that they extracted DNA from bacteria and another type of microbe called haloarchaea from halite samples up to 425 million years old.
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Potter stars immortalised on stamps
London: Harry Potter stars Ralph Fiennes and Michael Gambon have been immortalised on a commemorative postage stamp in their native Britain.
Fans of the wizard franchise can purchase stamps featuring Gambon as his on screen persona of Professor Dumbledore, headmaster of the imaginary magic school Hogwarts, and Fiennes as Potter’s arch-enemy Lord Voldemort, reported contactmusic.com.
The limited edition Magical Realms collection also includes Tilda Swinton in costume as the White Witch from CS Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia.
A spokesperson for the Royal Mail said, “There’s a magical tribute to some of our legends of literature.”
—PTI