A form of life dating back to 830 million years ago might be contained in a crystal. To get to the bottom of it, geologists want to split it in two.
A screenwriter looking for a good story for a horror or adventure film that goes wrong, might not have found a better early postapocalyptic history : 830 million year old crystal is regarding to be split open by biologists to examine the cells it contains. The problem is that they have no idea what might happen.
Beautifully preserved cells
An extremely ancient form of life has just been found by scientists: these are cells surviving inside an 830 million year old salt crystal, found in central Australia. The researchers used very advanced imaging techniques with ultraviolet rays, and were able to identify these organic solids.
These cells might still be alive because they are extremely well preserved in their glittering habitat. Normally it is impossible for crystallized salt to keep cells alive, but cells seem to move when the crystal is handled, suggesting otherwise. Unlike fossils, they are mobile and might contain a wealth of information regarding the beginning of life on Earth.
Some organisms manage to survive in a very salty environment, by shrinking and reducing their biological activity, such as algae for example.
Beware of the virological risk
In the video, it is possible to see the bubble containing the cells and containing the micro-organisms in question: it is to analyze the contents of this bubble that the scientists issued the hypothesis of cutting the crystal in half in order to be able to extract the form of life from it.
But the enigmatic question of security remains: might this manipulation present a risk to humans? After suffering a global pandemic whose exact origin is still unknownit might be good not to rush to release unknown bacteria 800 million years old into our world.
Le virological risk is present in the minds of scientists, as Kathy Benison points outgeologist at the University of West Virginia:
« It looks like a really bad B-movie, but a lot of detailed work has been going on for years trying to figure out how to do this in the safest way possible. »
Other researchers take more radical positions and have no feararguing that an environmental organism that has never seen a human being cannot enter it and create disease.
In any case, geologists will do everything to make the best use of the information provided by this crystal.
