ugeria are prepared to s doems and  for bettertimes. In 1997 scientists successfully activated some ant  foreigrondback to life after being released from a 118-year-old can of meat and a 166-year-old bottle ofbeer. In 1996, scientists at to eriafrozen in Siberian permafrost for t ty so faris one made by Russell Vreeland and colleagues at est Cer University in Pennsylvaniain 2000, ated 250-million-year-old bacteria calledBacillus permians t rapped in salt deposits t underground inCarlsbad, Neinents.

    t met andable dubiousness. Many biocs maintained tover sucs self from time to time. erium did stir occasionallyternal source of energy t could ed so long. tful scientists suggested t taminated, if not during itsretrieval till buried. In 2001, a team from tel Aviv University argued tB. permians  identical to a strain of modern bacteria, Bacillus marismortui, foundin ts genetic sequences differed, and tly.

    “Are o believe,” te, “t in 250 million years B. permiansed t of genetic differences t could be ac 3–7days in tory?” In reply, Vreeland suggested t “bacteria evolve faster in the wild.”

    Maybe.

    It is a remarkable fact t o t scextbooks divided to just tegories—plant and animal. Microorganisms ured.

    Amoebas and similar single-celled organisms reated as proto-animals and algae asproto-plants. Bacteria s, too, even t belong te nineteentury turalistErnst ed t bacteria deserved to be placed in a separate kingdom,  begin to catcs until te t my trusty Ameri