Russian scientist have resuscitated a version of a flowering plant called silene stenophylia that has, according to carbon-dating of the source's plant tissue, not see the light of day for 32,000 years.
Remnants of the plant were found preserved in a frozen squirrel den in the Siberian permafrost. There were modern versions of this ice age flower growing nearby, so the idea that the tissue could be from the same plant was reasonable.
They successfully were able to get a version to grow, flower, and make viable seeds using genetic material retrieved from the tissue. The flowers are of a different shape than the modern varieties nearby, and a success like this has provoked the Russians to push for the continued research done on the permafrost in eastern Siberia.
Whether or not the scientists should have resuscitated plant DNA from 32,000 years ago hasn't ever really been addressed, at least in anything I've read. If anything, it leads to a rather serious precedent.
It also has inspired me to consider this post and concept as a Part 2 in a trilogy, with Part 1 being this post about guest mitochondria and zygotes (which I can say is quite good after I read it for the first time since writing it back in June of 2009). If "science fiction" is abbreviated by sci-fi, then let me state that something I'm calling "science reality" can be abbreviated by sci-real.
This trilogy is about the "Banality of Sci-Real". Part 3 will be about tetrodotoxin and datura.
For an article on this really old school stilene tundra flower, check this out.
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