Scientists found 830 million year old crystal with "life" in it. They're going to open it

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This is how a lot of dystopian, near end of the world movies start. A scientist or archeologist finds some really old thing and they mess around with it too much and unleash a plague on the planet. I think we could all do with not having another plague right now.

I'm sure it's all fine and that when they say "life" they mean micro organisms but at the same time, I will admit I worry a little bit whenever we start talking about messing around with things like this. If something is moving inside of a rock that is dated to be millions of years old, the cautious person in me says that it might not be a terrible idea to just leave it alone.


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It's probably nothing to get worked up about but I think that people are a lot more fearful of mucking about with things we don't understand yet, even and probably especially if it is microscopic.

The stone was first discovered in Australia but now resides in a university in West Virginia and a scientist named Kathy Benison and her team plan to crack the stone open and research the "life" that she says could still be surviving, somehow, in a stone that is more than 800 million years old.

Concerns have been raised in the scientific community because the entire world is a bit on edge about microorganisms at the moment and one scientist had this to say.

"An environmental organism that has never seen a human is not going to have the mechanism to get inside of us and cause disease,"

Isn't that what we have arrogantly said about a lot of stuff? Isn't that what all of these secure research facilities always say about how there's nothing to worry about because we have the tools to contain it? They always say this right up to the point where they no longer DO have the ability to contain it and maybe I am being a bit paranoid but I would prefer that they just leave this friggin rock alone.



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Do you have a link to the article covering this discovery?

It would be nice to be able to read the source release too. I'm wondering just how different this is than say, things like prehistoric flies that were fossilized in amber, etc.

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A scientist or archeologist finds some really old thing and they mess around with it too much and unleash a plague on the planet. I think we could all do with not having another plague right now.

I'm sure it's all fine and that when they say "life" they mean micro organisms but at the same time, I will admit I worry a little bit whenever we start talking about messing around with things like this.

Let us be optimistic at first. Probably they know what they are doing. Probably they do this in a high secure and highly controlled environment. Probably they also know that a virus or a parasite, or anything similar is a possibility. Or at least hopefully. Because it is more than 800 million years old, it can be anything. Maybe something that we currently do not even know.

An environmental organism that has never seen a human is not going to have the mechanism to get inside of us and cause disease

How can a scientist say something like this? This is foolish. I am not a scientist, but I still know that every microscopic thing can get inside of us. And who knows? Maybe it does not even need to get inside of us to cause disease.

There are thins that I have not seen so far, but I could still get inside of them, if I would see them. Unless something physically blocks me. But this is obviously not the case in the case of microscopic things. They can easily enter the human body.

If it is more than 800 years old, and it still lives in a rock, then maybe it would be best to not crack that rock open, nor mess with it in any way. Who knows what that is? It can be very dangerous to living organisms, including humans.

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maybe I am being a bit paranoid but I would prefer that they just leave this friggin rock alone.

I totally agree! Why can't we just leave well enough alone?

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always have to be messing with everything. lol

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Always someone dicking around saying screw the consequences as no one really knows if this is good or bad. The truth is they don't know and all for the sake of science.

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I second that. I mean really, we're still dealing with a current pandemic...do they really want to open up another can a worms?

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this time it can be one that gives us alien powers hopefully. Or at least something cooler than just an extreme flu.

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