Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum here. Some types of bacteria are known for
Speaker 1: their ability to survive extreme conditions, from high temperatures to
Speaker 1: chemical attacks to dehydration, but for how long are they
Speaker 1: really viable? In A team of scientists dried a collection
Speaker 1: of bacteria, sealed those specimens away in small glass vials,
Speaker 1: and in five hundred years, some researcher will have the
Speaker 1: honor of bringing the long lived study to a close.
Speaker 1: The five century long experiment was conceived by researchers at
Speaker 1: Scotland's University of Edinburgh, who teamed up with German and
Speaker 1: American scientists in hopes of advancing human kinds understanding of
Speaker 1: bacteria longevity. A major catch, none of them, or their
Speaker 1: children or great great grandchildren are likely to be around
Speaker 1: to see the results. In an email interview, Charles Cockle,
Speaker 1: one of these scientists involved with the project, said the
Speaker 1: motivation for the experiment was straightforward quote. Most science experiments
Speaker 1: were on grant or human lifespans, but nature works over
Speaker 1: long time periods. We wanted to create an experiment that
Speaker 1: was more aligned to the length of time of interest
Speaker 1: for studying microbes. For the experiment, team members filled eight
Speaker 1: hundred vials with one of two types of bacteria, Crococca
Speaker 1: diiopsis or Baccillus subtalis. The former is a true survivor,
Speaker 1: a very primitive bacterium often found in extremely inhospitable environments
Speaker 1: from hot springs to deserts. The latter is one of
Speaker 1: the most studied bacterium in all of science, one that
Speaker 1: can revert to a dormant state, surrounding itself with a
Speaker 1: spore and basically going into hibernation when it's subjected to
Speaker 1: environmental changes. The glass files the scientists filled were completely
Speaker 1: sealed off from air, and half of them were shrouded
Speaker 1: and lead to thwart the possible effects of radiation or
Speaker 1: other potential interferences that could cause DNA damage. For the
Speaker 1: first quarter century, scientists will check on the bacteria every
Speaker 1: other year to see if they're still viable. Then the
Speaker 1: check up schedule will shift to once every twenty five
Speaker 1: years until the five hundred year test is over. The
Speaker 1: actual tests are easy, simply requiring a basic rehydration process
Speaker 1: and counting the bacteria colonies. But what's the best way
Speaker 1: to describe the experiment to people four hundred years into
Speaker 1: the future. Instructions were printed on paper and also stored
Speaker 1: to a flash drive, with the explicit request that researchers
Speaker 1: update the verbiage and technologies when they perform their twenty
Speaker 1: five year checks. The first analyzes were conducted in with
Speaker 1: results published in December the GIST. After two years of isolation,
Speaker 1: bacteria spores demonstrated hardly any decrease in viability. Some of
Speaker 1: the surviving spores were then purposefully exposed too tougher conditions
Speaker 1: like high salt levels or a spacelike vacuum. These specimens
Speaker 1: then showed an increased loss of viability. But what's the
Speaker 1: best case scenario of such a long term project, the
Speaker 1: Cockle said, there isn't an ideal outcome as such. We
Speaker 1: want to learn how quickly microbes die and what mathematical
Speaker 1: function describes their death over century time scales. Some by
Speaker 1: tiria are so durable that they can remain viable for
Speaker 1: tens of millions of years, provided they're preserved in one
Speaker 1: form or another. For example, scientists have revived bacteria immersed
Speaker 1: in twenty five million year old tree sap and also
Speaker 1: from the carcasses of creatures like beetles that were trapped
Speaker 1: in amber a hundred and thirty five million years ago.
Speaker 1: Other researchers found that bacteria in New Mexico salt deposits
Speaker 1: were still viable after two hundred and fifty million years.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Nathan Chandler and produced by
Speaker 1: Tyler Clay for iHeart Media and How Stuff Works. For
Speaker 1: more on this and lots of other topics with the
Speaker 1: future in mind, visit our home planet, how stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot com.