This might not totally get the title, but Rutgers (it’s in New Jersey) researchers doing similar work to that of the University of Copenhagen (see “The New Winner: Oldest Living Thing”) have resuscitated an eight-million-year-old bacterium, which beats Copenhagen’s 600,000 years by a long shot. Paul Falkowski, the Rutgers study leader, said the bacterial cells were in a “suspended state of animation for 8 million years.”

Similarly, Russell Vreeland of the Ancient Biomaterials Institute at West Chester University in Pennsylvania has resuscitated 250-million-year-old bacteria that was in some ancient salt crystals. Vreeland warns that Falkowski’s samples may have been contaminated; no word on what Falkowski thinks of Vreeland’s samples, but everybody agrees that the Copenhagen study controlled for contamination very well.

The most important difference is that whereas Falkowski’s and Vreeland’s teams cultured their bacteria, which was extremely damaged beyond recognition by cosmic radiation (seriously), to revive it, the Copenhagen bacteria stayed alive on its own. So for now, I think it keeps the title.

Terrifyingly, though, Falkowksi believes that as polar ice melts, ancient bacterial DNA such as his will be released into our world, possibly as what he calls a "gene popsicle," being absorbed into the genetic makeup of modern bugs. Less terrifyingly, however, he notes that this probably happens all the time, and marine bacteria is less harmful to us anyway, so there's really nothing to worry about.