The revival of a 32,000-year-old flowering plant buried deep in Siberian soil was big news in 2012. The idea that researchers could resurrect past plant life by cloning the genetic material contained in frozen fruiting tissue seemed to come right out of a sci-fi novel. But a study published yesterday in Current Biology may actually deserve more attention, as scientists have now demonstrated that some plants need far less help with regaining life, the Associated Press reports. Using only heat and water, researchers were able to revive a 1,600-year-old Antarctic moss, making Chorisodontium aciplyllum the oldest multicellular organism revived to date — and, arguably, one of the hardiest.
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