Living!

April 16th, 2022| Topic: RaMbLeS | 2

The Arctic rotifer is a strange creature. It is pretty small—less than a millimeter or 0.0393701 inches! So, basically, it is microscopic. Yet, its body is complex: it is multicellular, and it has a gut and a brain. This critter, belongs to a group of rotifers known as Bdelloids, that are known for their ability to survive
extremely low temperatures. Previously, it was known that they could live for up to a decade when frozen at about −20°C.

Well, they found a few the other day, as reported in Current Biology. The Soil Cryology Lab in Russia specializes in isolating microscopic organisms using a drilling rig in Siberia’s ancient permafrost. It remains below the freezing point all year. They found a whole bunch of frozen rotifers, frozen not just for a decade, but, apparently, for the last 24,000 years! These were among a number of specimens collected from the middle reaches of the Alazeya River in Yakutia, northeastern Siberia, and more than 11 feet below the surface of the frozen waterway.

Radio-carbon dating showed these beasts date back to when mammoths roamed the Earth. But it wasn’t just the discovery that was amazing. Scientists say the tiny creature, dug out of the subsurface soil in a state of “suspended animation,” has even reproduced. These things could withstand the formation of ice crystals that happens during slow freezing. It’s believed they have a system that shields cells and organs from harm at exceedingly low temperatures.

Gushed one reporter:

They are the most advanced lifeform to exhibit a degree of immortality.”

And declared co-author Dr. Stas Malavin from Russia’s Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science:

The takeaway is that a multicellular organism can be frozen and stored as such for thousands of years and then return back to life–a dream of many fiction writers.”

Who knows what’s next to be brought back to life—the woolly mammoth? the sabre-toothed tiger? the dodo (though I know a few living ones)?

Explained Malavin:

Of course, the more complex the organism, the trickier it is to preserve it alive frozen and, for mammals, it’s not currently possible. Yet, moving from a single-celled organism to an organism with a gut and brain, though microscopic, is a big step forward. Our report is the hardest proof as of today that multicellular animals could withstand tens of thousands of years in cryptobiosis, the state of almost completely arrested metabolism.”

Perhaps in the fond hope of being revived, thousands of humans have signed up to have their bodies cryofrozen and preserved in facilities, including three in the U.S. and one in Russia.

All that’s well and good, but there’s only one who was resurrected from the dead to glory.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received,
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
and that He was buried,
and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.
1 Corinthians 15:3–4

And for all who believe in Christ as their only God and Savior from sin, eternal life is guaranteed:

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again,
even so God will bring with Him
those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 4:14

The best news ever!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again
to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
1 Peter 1:3

He is risen, indeed! Praise God!

SOURCE:
Current Biology; StudyFinds