The Journal

Chapter Ten

"What do you mean alive?" Adam asked with an ominous sounding undertone.

"I mean exactly that!" Grace announced fervently. "They're alive! Whatever this microorganism is, it was frozen in that ice! This is incredible!" Grace finished and looked into the microscope again, unable to believe her miraculous find.

"Okay, so we know it's alive, but what is it?" Adam questioned as he began working on his first hypothesis.

"I don't know for sure," Grace admitted. "It appears to be some sort of bacteria from what I can tell." Grace said while still peering down the microscope tube.

"Are you sure you just didn't contaminate the sample?" This question was Adam's first and most likely hypothesis in his mind. "I mean, come on. I've read about people discovering bacteria frozen in permafrost and even a microorganism from Siberia that was thirty thousand years old, but there aren't many reports about that. I doubt we made the next big scientific discovery." Adam explained logically.

"But what if we did?" Grace didn't allow Adam's skepticism to stifle her excitement and repudiated his disbelief. "In fact, I believe we did exactly that! And I'll prove it! I'll take more samples and inspect them under the microscope. If the organisms were present in this first sample, they're bound to be in others. If I'm right, you owe me dinner when we get to Kentucky. How's that sound?" Adam pondered her request briefly before replying.

"Well, first off, if you're right, this will definitely make it into my journal, and best of all, we'll have an epic climax for our paper and our thesis next year!" Although Adam hadn't finished, Grace cut in, expanding the horizon of Adam's more grounded expectations.

"Forget the papers! This find could be an avenue for us into amazing job opportunities, and think of all the media coverage of a discovery like this! This could make us famous in the scientific realm and provide us with notoriety before we even reach the job market! This find could be huge for us." Grace's eyes began darting wildly, envisioning all the possibilities of this potentially historical find.

"Whoa, slow down there, Leeuwenhoek. First, let's confirm if you're right, and if you are, I will absolutely take you to dinner!" Adam finished with a smile. Grace hid her face in her shoulder for a second while she smiled as well, feeling giddy envisioning a date with Adam.

Grace got right to collecting more samples and carefully inspecting each one, taking every possible measure to ensure she hadn't contaminated any of the virgin specimens. Grace mumbled to herself umpteen times throughout the tests while rapidly jotting down notes on the first blank page in Adam's journal he donated to her for this occasion. Adam only sat and observed Grace in her natural habitat of scientific testing. There was no doubt in his mind she was born for this, and the scientific field would benefit greatly from her presence within it.

Grace took nearly a dozen samples from the oldest ice cores to pinpoint the location of the microorganisms hibernating in the frozen cylinders. With all of the necessary samples examined, she finished her microscopic investigation by filling half a dozen skinny, sterile vials and packed them into a small, unassuming protective case the size of a pack of cigars.

"So, it would seem we just got lucky with our finding." Grace had concluded.

"Lucky how? What did you figure out about them?" Adam inquired while waiting patiently.

"So, as far as I can tell, the bacteria, which I'm almost positive that's what they are, was only in our very last ice core, and not just that, but the lowest half meter. The concentration seems to vary in that distance and doesn't seem to follow any real pattern, just that it was higher and lower throughout the very bottom of the last core. Who knows how far down in the ice it went. We just hit the tip of the iceberg! Pun intended." Grace let out a half giggle from her quip.