Hardy microbe’s DNA could be a time capsule for the ages
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/hardy-microbe-s-dna-could-be-time-capsule-ages
Information was encoded in the DNA of a strain of salt-tolerant Halobacterium salinarum.
Joe Davis is looking for the ultimate time capsule. He wants to preserve a record of humanity that could survive for eons, to be read by successors to Homo sapiens on Earth or by sapient extraterrestrials. He has now found the right medium, he thinks: the DNA of an odd microbe that lives in deposits of rock salt. He believes this archive—protected by salt and renewed by the microbe—could possibly survive for hundreds of millions of years.
Hardy microbe’s DNA could be a time capsule for the ages
Feb 18, 2020, 10:18pm UTC
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/hardy-microbe-s-dna-could-be-time-capsule-ages
> Information was encoded in the DNA of a strain of salt-tolerant Halobacterium salinarum.
> Joe Davis is looking for the ultimate time capsule. He wants to preserve a record of humanity that could survive for eons, to be read by successors to Homo sapiens on Earth or by sapient extraterrestrials. He has now found the right medium, he thinks: the DNA of an odd microbe that lives in deposits of rock salt. He believes this archive—protected by salt and renewed by the microbe—could possibly survive for hundreds of millions of years.