New Life, From an Arctic Flower That Died 32,000 Years Ago
By taking advantage of a property of most plant cells, a Russian research group may have revived a 32,000 year-old plant:
They then took cells from the placenta, the organ in the fruit that produces the seeds. They thawed out the cells and grew them in culture dishes into whole plants.
As the article goes on to point out, if this can be confirmed this represents a unique opportunity to study recent evolution in this species. But just think about this for a second: these cells that were revived were in a squirrel hole for 32,000 years. Whoa.
Gravitropic 