Posted on

Could this fossilized flea unleash deadly plague?

Fea in amber

Fea in amber
This flea preserved about 20 million years ago in amber may carry evidence of an ancestral strain of the bubonic plague.
Photo by George Poinar, Jr., courtesy of Oregon State University [CC BY-SA 2.0]
The flea in this picture could contain the ancestor to one of the most horrifying diseases known to the human race, the Black Death. Also called the bubonic plague, this disease killed an estimated 50 million people in the 14th century, or 60 per cent of Europe’s entire population.

Examination of this flea found droplets of the deadly bacteria on its proboscis (sucking mouthpart) and in its backside. This thing’s got it bad!

George Poinar, Jr., an entomology researcher in the College of Science at Oregon State University, told Discover News reporters “Aside from physical characteristics of the fossil bacteria that are similar to plague bacteria, their location in the rectum of the flea is known to occur in modern plague bacteria, and in this fossil, the presence of similar bacteria in a dried droplet on the proboscis of the flea is consistent with the method of transmission of plague bacteria by modern fleas.”

In other words, it looks like we’ve got a winner!

Just as the mosquito that started all the trouble in Jurrasic Park, this chunk of amber was pulled from a mine in the Dominican Republic. Is it possible that this bacteria could somehow be revived? It’s not likely. Generally things that have been trapped in rock for 20 million years are going to be pretty dead. However, we have discovered bacteria that can survive in space, so what do we know?

Enlarged photo of flea with arrow pointing to traces of bacteria
The arrow points at bacteria on the proboscis of this flea preserved in amber, which researchers believe may be an ancestral strain of the bacteria that causes bubonic plague.
Photo by George Poinar, Jr., courtesy of Oregon State University [CC BY-SA 2.0]
Another question is could an early form of this plague have been partially responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs about 66 million years ago? Research suggests that the big event was a large asteroid (and that more may be coming). But imagine the double-whammy of terrible disease and an astro-event!Poinar added “If this is an ancient strain of Yersinia, it would be extraordinary. It would show that plague is actually an ancient disease that no doubt was infecting and possibly causing some extinction of animals long before any humans existed. Plague may have played a larger role in the past than we imagined.”Hopefully all of this will remain scientific curiosity and we won’t have some strange event that brings on the zombie apocalypse. Though, it wouldn’t hurt to have a few cans of food and some extra water handy.

 

Saul Ravencraft's signature

 

Read the original Discovery News article.

 

Posted on

NASA scientist finds evidence of alien life

NASA Scientist Finds Evidence of Alien Life

I remember hearing about a similar scenario back in the mid-90’s, when some scientists also announced evidence of fossilized bacteria in a meteorite. How did the scientific community react to their claims then, and how will they react to this one now?

*******************************************************************

Aliens exist, and we have proof.

That astonishingly awesome claim comes from Dr. Richard B. Hoover, an astrobiologist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, who says he has found conclusive evidence of alien life — fossils of bacteria found in an extremely rare class of meteorite called CI1 carbonaceous chondrites. (There are only nine such meteorites on planet Earth.) Hoover’s findings were published late Friday night in the Journal of Cosmology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

“I interpret it as indicating that life is more broadly distributed than restricted strictly to the planet earth,” Hoover, who has spent more than 10 years studying meteorites around the world, told FoxNews.com in an interview. “This field of study has just barely been touched — because quite frankly, a great many scientist would say that this is impossible.”

Hoover discovered the fossils by breaking apart the CI1 meteorite, and analyzing the exposed rock with a scanning-electron microscope and a field emission electron-scanning microscope, which allowed him to detect any fossil remains. What he found were fossils of micro-organisms (pictured below), many of which he says are strikingly similar to those found on our own planet (pictured above).


“The exciting thing is that they are in many cases recognizable and can be associated very closely with the generic species here on earth,” said Hoover. Some of the fossils, however, are quite odd. “There are some that are just very strange and don’t look like anything that I’ve been able to identify, and I’ve shown them to many other experts that have also come up stumped.”

In order to satisfy the inevitable hoard of buzz-killing skeptics, Hoover’s study and evidence were made available to his peers in the scientific community in advance of the study’s publications, giving them a chance to thoroughly dissect his findings. Comments from those who decided to sift through the evidence will be published online, alongside the study.

“Given the controversial nature of his discovery, we have invited 100 experts and have issued a general invitation to over 5,000 scientists from the scientific community to review the paper and to offer their critical analysis,” writes Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics scientist Dr. Rudy Schild, who serves as the Journal of Cosmology’s editor-in-chief. “No other paper in the history of science has undergone such a thorough vetting, and never before in the history of science has the scientific community been given the opportunity to critically analyze an important research paper before it is published.”

Needless to say, if Hoover’s conclusions are found to be accurate, the implications for human life will be staggering. Here’s hoping that he’s right.

Read the rest of this story (and it’s predictable update) here: 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/nasascientistfindsevidenceofalienlife