Yes, big news today as I keep reading from source after source that some microbes got unfrozen in a lab. Unfortunately non of the articles are as amusing as my write up, or as informative as the Damn Interesting article I read first thing this morning.
In 1990 the Russians were taking ice samples in Antarctica and came across an anomaly about 2 miles deep. The temporally marked layers had stopped, and a single pristine layer persisted. They had no explanation until some aerial radar discovered that it was an under-ice lake. The water is under extreme pressure and would have burst up the drilling shaft had the Russians continued. Luckily they were convinced to stop and did not, as far as we know, contaminate this completely pristine (and maybe sterile) ecosystem. So that's why its so exciting that these guys are being reanimated. Not only are they really old and frozen it gives hope that the submerged lake does indeed have a viable ecosystem that has evolved in a separate system for millions of years. Creating god-knows-what.
Yes, I know this is the premise of Alien vs Predator.
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