From: Adam <""4thwormcastfromthemolehill\"{at}the field.near
the bridge">

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/826167.html


"The wind ruffles the leaves of the date sapling in its planter, and
Dr. Elaine Soloway quickly shields it. "There's only one plant like
this in the world, and I'm still worried about it," she says.
Methuselah - that is the sapling's name - is indeed unique. In 2005,
Soloway, from Kibbutz Ketura in the Arava, germinated it from a
2,000-year-old date seed found at Masada.

For the past two millennia, since approximately the time of the Great
Revolt of the Jews against the Romans, in 66-73 C.E., the seed lay dormant,
until Soloway and her team breathed life into it, making it the oldest seed
ever to germinate.

For two years, the seed was kept in isolation in a plant nursery to protect
it from the modern diseases to which it would have been vulnerable. Now
that it is stronger, Soloway is planning on transplanting it. "I think
it has a future," she says.

Last week, Methuselah underwent chronological testing, using the
radioactive isotope Carbon-14, which confirmed that the tree grew from a
seed that lived when the Romans ruled the land. "

You know you're old when you need carbon dating.....


BTW given it's the only one around I am refraining from the obvious puns
wrt a dated date looking for a date.

Adam

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