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Are Seeds Alive?
The first link, from Arizona State University, cited the work of Jane
Shen-Miller, a scientist working with old seeds. Her work is not annecdotal, it is REAL EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE. The seeds were radiocarbon dated. Do a google search for her work and you will find many reports of seeds of varying longevity being germinated. Aaron . On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 20:35:31 GMT, "Cereus-validus" wrote: Despite you verbose (are you getting paid by the word?) pedant, the examples you are link are still anecdotal and they fail to mention exactly what plants these 400 year old seeds were. Are these supposed to be the same lotus seeds that another report claimed were 1200 years old? It sure look like they have gotten marked down along the way. Weed seeds are well know to survive dormant for very long time buried in deep soil but 400 years is a bit much. "Aaron" wrote in message .. . Here is an example of the confluence between qualitative language and incompleter scientific knowledge. The problem is with our language and limited direct experience with all the bizzare adaptations of life forms. The range of properties we expect of "living" material is expanding at a mindboggling rate with new research.. As we explore more of the environmental extremes on earth. we continue to find life existing in conditions which we thought impossible only a few years ago. I strongly suspect we will find life forms in other locations throughout the universe within a relatively short time period. One of the bizarre aspects of certain life forms is the ability to suspend metabolism when conditions dictate. It is a property which has been documented many times over. We ought not to be so shocked by the facts or limited in our ability to intregrate the knowledge. Here is one report of radiocarbon dated seed about 3000 years old being germinated. http://askabiologist.asu.edu/researc...seeds_old.html Another study of loongevity of seeds http://newsbulletin.msu.edu/july27/beal.html Accidental find.... http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scite...ard020314.html The oldest seed to germinate has not been found yet and the question is still open to future investigation because finding these old seeds to test is accidental.. . Aaron On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 01:21:43 GMT, "Miss Chanandler Bong" wrote: Are seeds alive or not? Seeds have been found in the desert and that are 4000 years old, but when put in moist soil, they grow. So where does the life come from? Is it generated when conditions are right? Or was the seed alive but dormant? Do the conditions make life? Can't find answers - I don't think anyone knows. |
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