Daily Archives: 20 June 2012
32,000-Year-Old Plant Reborn From Ancient Fruit Found in Siberian Ice
(Photo: Svetlana Yashina via Bloomberg) 
Researchers in Russia have revived a fertile plant from the remains of 32,000-year-old fruit that was found buried within the fossilized burrows of ancient squirrels deep in the Siberian ice.
The resurrected plant, from an era of woolly mammoths and saber-tooth cats, is the oldest viable multicellular living organism, according to the study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It is also the first plant returned to life from permafrost conditions, researchers said.
The discovery raises the possibility of reviving other frozen organisms with prehistoric gene pools, researchers said. Using a horticulture technique called micropropagation, researchers grew the plant from fruit tissue in a test tube of nutrients. The ones that grew roots were transferred into pots with soil and light, where they developed flowers and seeds.
“There is abundant permafrost in northern Alaska and Canada,” said Buford Price, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who edited the paper, in an e-mail. Finding an organism that could produce a plant with dark green leaves and small white flowers shows the benefit of pursuing goals that seem impossible, he said. 
(Read more)
Grants Pass, Oregon Releases Inmates After Budget Cuts Leave County With ‘No Other Alternative’
Dozens of inmates ran whooping from a small town jail into the sunshine Wednesday after a cash-strapped county in Oregon’s timber region was forced to release them amid budget cuts.
The sheriff’s office released 39 inmates, dropping the population at the jail in Grants Pass to 60 – half of them federal prisoners held on contract.
“We had no other alternative based on our funding predicament,” said Josephine County Undersheriff Don Fasching. “We are very concerned for public safety.”
About half of those released will finish their sentences on work crews. The rest were waiting for trial.
The most common charges were for drug crimes, minor assaults, burglary, identity theft and probation violations. (Read more)
Big Crime / Small Crime
No White Man Need Apply on Obama-Biden campaign website
IMF, US praise 100 bn euro bank deal for Spain
The IMF and US both praised a Eurogroup deal giving Spain a lifeline of up to €100 bn ($125 billion) to save its stricken banks, with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde calling it a “credible back stop” for the banking system. (Read more)