Dormant microbes from Ötzi the Iceman’s body can grow in the lab

For a long time, scientists considered Ötzi the Iceman a messenger from the Copper Age. But new research shows this frozen mummy wasn’t alone. He hosts small companions — dormant, cold-adapted yeasts. In other words, his remains might not be as frozen in time as researchers once thought.

Since Ötzi’s discovery in the Italian Alps in 1991, his body has been housed in a specialized facility in Bolzano, Italy. Scientists there held his remains at –6° Celsius (21.2° Fahrenheit). This has been to keep his body from degrading. It’s a temp close to that of the glacier in which he’d been found.

Let’s learn about mummies

Four ancient species of yeast have now been found in his remains. And they’re still able to grow in the lab, reports Albert Zink. His team isolated “ancient DNA from these species,” he notes. An anthropologist, until recently, he worked at the Eurac research center in Bolzano, Italy. (He’s now at Ludwig Max...