“You know how those scary movies sometimes begin? Some long-buried monster comes to life in a cave, under a volcano, or in the deep ocean. Then it wreaks havoc on humanity. Well, we’re in the midst of one of those films, or maybe in the middle of a compilation of them.”
“How so?”
“The University of Rhode Island just released a report on a joint project with the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology and two other organizations.”
“On?”
“Microbes in deep sea sediments collected ten years ago: Microbes 101 million years old; Microbes that have been dormant, NOT dead, since before the dinosaurs died out. Well, Steven D’Hondt, one of the scientists, says that these little critters that were buried 6,000 meters below sea level could be revived. They were “capable of growing and dividing.* I don’t know about you, but I find that to be a very scary report.”
“Why? They’re probably harmless.”
“Until they aren’t. We know we live on a bacteria planet. It’s been one almost from the start. The things are everywhere, in us, in the air, on all the surfaces, under glaciers, in the ocean, and even deep in rocks. Yes, probably most are harmless, but I’ve been sick, so I know that not all are harmless, and some that had been around since before the last major extinction might have made mammals and dinosaurs sick, also. We’ve seen how dangerous methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, can be. What if some similar microthingy is hiding in sediments dredged up in the name of pure research and then released on some unsuspecting graduate student? You know how easy it is to spread stuff among college students. I’m not saying that it’s inevitable, not even saying it’s probable, but certainly it seems possible. Imagine how many microorganisms we still haven’t identified simply because we never encountered them. Had no one drilled into the deep-sea sediments, humans would never have come into contact with those old viable microbes.”
“Now you’re scaring me.”
“I keep thinking of how old ills keep resurfacing like Bubonic plague in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado National Monument, and a campground that closed at Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah. Bad enough that we have new stuff to worry about, what with COVID-19, other SARS stuff, Swine Flu, and Ebola. Sure, major diseases come along all the time, but now we have the ability to go dig them up in places where humans could only recently visit, like the sea floor 6,000 meters below the ocean surface.”
“I see your point. Old ills do keep resurfacing. Thought we had eliminated mindless anarchy, also, but here it is, burning cities in the name of…gee, when I think about it, in the name of nothing. What’s going to replace the devastated area? And socialism's threat to personal freedom? Thought we had eliminated its threat when we defeated the NAZIs and when the Soviet Union fell. Guess not. Old ills keep resurfacing. They are as difficult to eliminate as bacteria. Always lying in wait for an opportunity to resurface, even when they are buried in the deep past. Guess we have to be a little more careful about what we dig up.”
“As I said, it’s a bit like one of the scary movies where the buried monster comes back to life to wreak mindless havoc on humanity.”
*URI. Deep sea microbes dormant for 100 million years are hungry and ready to multiply. Phys.Org. 28 July 2020. Online at https://phys.org/news/2020-07-deep-sea-microbes-dormant-million.html Accessed July 29, 2020. Morono, Y., Ito, M., Hoshino, T. et al. Aerobic microbial life persists in oxic marine sediment as old as 101.5 million years. Nat Commun 11, 3626 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17330-1
“How so?”
“The University of Rhode Island just released a report on a joint project with the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology and two other organizations.”
“On?”
“Microbes in deep sea sediments collected ten years ago: Microbes 101 million years old; Microbes that have been dormant, NOT dead, since before the dinosaurs died out. Well, Steven D’Hondt, one of the scientists, says that these little critters that were buried 6,000 meters below sea level could be revived. They were “capable of growing and dividing.* I don’t know about you, but I find that to be a very scary report.”
“Why? They’re probably harmless.”
“Until they aren’t. We know we live on a bacteria planet. It’s been one almost from the start. The things are everywhere, in us, in the air, on all the surfaces, under glaciers, in the ocean, and even deep in rocks. Yes, probably most are harmless, but I’ve been sick, so I know that not all are harmless, and some that had been around since before the last major extinction might have made mammals and dinosaurs sick, also. We’ve seen how dangerous methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, can be. What if some similar microthingy is hiding in sediments dredged up in the name of pure research and then released on some unsuspecting graduate student? You know how easy it is to spread stuff among college students. I’m not saying that it’s inevitable, not even saying it’s probable, but certainly it seems possible. Imagine how many microorganisms we still haven’t identified simply because we never encountered them. Had no one drilled into the deep-sea sediments, humans would never have come into contact with those old viable microbes.”
“Now you’re scaring me.”
“I keep thinking of how old ills keep resurfacing like Bubonic plague in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado National Monument, and a campground that closed at Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah. Bad enough that we have new stuff to worry about, what with COVID-19, other SARS stuff, Swine Flu, and Ebola. Sure, major diseases come along all the time, but now we have the ability to go dig them up in places where humans could only recently visit, like the sea floor 6,000 meters below the ocean surface.”
“I see your point. Old ills do keep resurfacing. Thought we had eliminated mindless anarchy, also, but here it is, burning cities in the name of…gee, when I think about it, in the name of nothing. What’s going to replace the devastated area? And socialism's threat to personal freedom? Thought we had eliminated its threat when we defeated the NAZIs and when the Soviet Union fell. Guess not. Old ills keep resurfacing. They are as difficult to eliminate as bacteria. Always lying in wait for an opportunity to resurface, even when they are buried in the deep past. Guess we have to be a little more careful about what we dig up.”
“As I said, it’s a bit like one of the scary movies where the buried monster comes back to life to wreak mindless havoc on humanity.”
*URI. Deep sea microbes dormant for 100 million years are hungry and ready to multiply. Phys.Org. 28 July 2020. Online at https://phys.org/news/2020-07-deep-sea-microbes-dormant-million.html Accessed July 29, 2020. Morono, Y., Ito, M., Hoshino, T. et al. Aerobic microbial life persists in oxic marine sediment as old as 101.5 million years. Nat Commun 11, 3626 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17330-1
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