These bacteria are different enough to give us new substances, but not different enough that we can't recognize them. There's no more danger with these bacteria than there is with any newly discovered modern microorganism. The accomplishment will be published Friday, May 19, in Science, the weekly international research journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in a paper authored by Cano and former Cal Poly graduate student Monica Borucki. Cano revived the first of the ancient bacteria in late 1991. There have been claims before of reviving ancient microorganisms, but none has been conclusively proved.
Spores are a dormant form of bacteria.
Amber, and the resin that it comes from, are especially good preservatives, sealing an object from air, dehydrating it, and protecting it from physical damage. Because of his previous success in isolating viable DNA from ancient insects encased in amber, Cano believed it would be possible to revive a complete single-cell organism millions of years old. To prove it, he extracted material from the abdomen of an ancient bee after thoroughly sterilizing the exterior of the amber in which it was encased. He put the sample into a nutrient solution. Living bacteria were then found growing in the culture dishes.