Tony Sullivan's List: Science and nature

• the bug is new to science. But it is not new to Earth. In fact the microbe may have been slumbering for millions of years before being awakened by an industrial disaster.
• The bacterium in question lives below Lake Peigneur in southern Louisiana.
• The water that flowed into the mine contained less than 2% salt. But rock salt dissolves readily in water. When Dr Vreeland, then at the University of New Orleans, was granted access to part of the flooded mine in 1987, he found the water within contained 32% salt, about nine times more than seawater.
• For most creatures, that much salt would be lethal. But Dr Vreeland found a species of bacteria, one of a salt-loving group called Halobacteriales, in his samples. The bug grew best in water containing 18% salt—and died when concentrations fell below 10%. Since the bacterium could not have survived in the lake, how did it get into the water in the mine?
• Dr Vreeland claimed in Nature in 2000 that he and his colleagues had succeeded in reviving another salt-loving bacterium that was 250m years old
• Background radiation can also damage genomes. But the only radioactive atom found in brine is potassium-40. With a half-life of over a billion years, it is only mildly radioactive. And bacteria that live in harsh environments, including Halobacteriales, contain plenty of DNA-protecting proteins to prevent damage. Now, thanks to a human mistake, Dr Vreeland’s bacterium has been given an entire mine in which to live, where it can finally reap the rewards of its prodigious patience

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