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CAUSA's other new officers are: Cesar R. Conde'95, president; Natan J. Leyva '95, vicePresident; Margaret Isa '96, secretary; AlexanderP. Cano '95, treasurer; Rodolfo J. Fernandez '95,inter-campus liaison; Manuel F. Cachan '96,intra-campus liaison; and Elana M. Oberstein '97,first-year representative
...degradation, it does not prevent it entirely. "As remarkable as amber is," says David Grimaldi, a colleague of Wheeler's. "the DNA it contains is fragmented, which makes it astounding that viable spores could still be completely intact." And that is one reason why many scientists remain dubious about Cano's claims. Another ground for caution is the history of laboratory contamination that has haunted researchers working on ancient DNA. Though Cano took every precaution, laboratory samples can pick up extraneous material as easily as a jacket collects lint. Last year a team of British researchers disclosed that...
According to University of Connecticut biochemist Peter Setlow, Cano is a long way from convincing critics "beyond a shadow of a doubt that the microbe he has isolated is an ancient one." Setlow agrees, however, that Cano has made the most compelling case possible. For instance, he has clearly established that his bacteria -- while related to Bacillus sphaericus, a living resident of apiarian digestive tracts -- are genetically distinct from known microbes. The catch is, something like 95% of the bacteria that populate today's world have not even been identified, much less analyzed by scientists...
Right or wrong, Cano's startling experiment could touch off an amber rush as scientists and companies alike try to get their hands on nuggets of the golden polymer. The leader of the pack is Ambergene, which has spent the past two years "mining" ancient amber from 15 locations around the globe, from Burma to the Baltic Sea. Already, says president and co-founder Robin Steele, Ambergene scientists have identified filamentous fungi similar to those that have produced a distinguished line of antibiotics. They have also brewed batches of ale with ancient yeast. Beer buff Cano was named official taster...
Much more important than the commercial fate of Ambergene is the awesome scientific significance of what Cano may have done. If other laboratories confirm that microbes can survive over tens of millions of years, then humanity may gain new respect for the uncounted hordes of invisible organisms that dominate the world through the eons, even as bigger, supposedly smarter creatures come...