Organisms From Icebox Not Ancient Life

Contrary to press speculation, recently-discovered novel bacteria were not in suspended animation from the last Ice Age, but rather came with last month's take-home from Joe's Crab Shack in Old Sacramento:

The bacteria resembled a group of microbes called carnobacteria that can tolerate cold and are often isolated from refrigerated food. The NASA researchers established that the microbes belonged to a new species, which they have named Carnobacterium pleistocenium in honor of its age. The bacterium is not poisonous, Dr. Hoover said, although some of its close relatives cause disease in fish. The researchers are reporting their finding in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.

Dr. Hoover said he believed the bacteria were not able to divide during the eons spent locked in the ice, so the specimens he thawed out would have been 32,000 years old....

The bacteria weren't able to divide because I kept opening and closing the icebox looking for snacks. A watched pot never boils (or something to that effect!)