Saturday, April 25, 2026
Yikes:24,000-year-old frozen ‘zombie worm’ thawed by scientists — then it shockingly started reproducing
24,000-year-old frozen ‘zombie worm’ thawed by scientists — then it shockingly started reproducing
It thawed out — and then it multiplied.
Scientists successfully revived a “zombie worm” that had been frozen for 24,000 years, revealing new insight into how life survives in the most unforgiving environments over extended periods of time.
According to a study published in the scientific journal Current Biology, researchers found that the microscopic organism — identified as a rotifer — is a small, multicellular animal commonly found in freshwater environments that is known for its unusual durability, FOX News reported.
The “zombie worm” has been frozen deep within Siberian permafrost since the Late Pleistocene, which was considered to be the final epoch of the Ice Age, ending roughly 11,700 years ago.
Scientists believe the Yedoma formation — an ice-rich, organic-laden permafrost formed during the Ice Age — helped sustain the specimen in a stable, frozen state for tens of thousands of years.
Researchers carefully thawed out the rotifer under strictly controlled laboratory conditions and were left stunned when the multiple millennia-old rotifer resumed normal biological functions.
And more shockingly, it was able to reproduce again asexually, indicating that its cellular structures remained intact after tens of thousands of years on ice.
“Our report is the hardest proof as of today that multicellular animals could withstand tens of thousands of years in cryptobiosis, the state of almost completely arrested metabolism,” lead researcher Stas Malavin told the Indian Defence Review.
The phenomenon behind the rotifer’s survival is cryptobiosis — a state in which metabolic activity in organisms slows to almost nothing, allowing certain life forms to endure extreme conditions such as freezing temperatures, dehydration and oxygen deprivation.
While single-celled life forms or simpler structures have been revived from ice before, the revival of a multicellular organism marks a major breakthrough for scientists, as more complex life forms face greater challenges surviving freezing conditions and thawing without damage.
But the breakthrough comes with a stark warning — as permafrost melts, scientists fear ancient microbes could be released into the wild, raising urgent questions about the risks they may pose.
Despite their microscopic size, rotifers have complex biological features — including digestive systems and simple nervous structures — making their ability to survive long-term freezing especially remarkable.
Scientists believe the results may have a broader scientific impact, particularly in understanding how cells resist damage caused by freezing and radiation over time.
The discovery — the second in recent years after Russian scientists uncovered Arctic “zombie worms” in 2021 — could also shape research in fields like biotechnology and astrobiology, where scientists study how life might endure in extreme, or even extraterrestrial environments.
However, scientists caution that the findings do not suggest that larger organisms, such as mammals, could be revived after similar periods of freezing.
Higher life forms are far more complex than microscopic organisms — making them far more susceptible to drastic cellular damage during the freezing and thawing processes.
Still, the study pushes the known limits of life on Earth, raising new questions about how long organisms can remain viable under the right conditions and potentially reshaping how scientists think about survival in extreme environments.
A gift from the Biden/Harris immigration anarchy
DHS Hooks an Illegal Alien Somali Pirate
Said Jama Ahmed might not be walking the plank, but the Somali pirate definitely needs to be shipped out of our country.
Ahmed, in fact, has a history with the U.S. military and federal immigration enforcement, as the Navy caught him committing piracy in the Gulf of Aden back in 2012, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) later caught him here in 2024 after he illegally entered our country. It appears authorities removed him, but he returned to try to enter America from the north instead of the south. Apparently, piracy wasn't the lucrative profession he thought it would be, so he decided to sneak into our country and rob American taxpayers instead.
Of course, Ahmed was able to reside in the U.S. for some two years the first time he entered, because it was during the Biden-Harris era of total immigration anarchy. Why go to all the trouble of chasing down and commandeering ships when you can get all kinds of freebies in the U.S. just for breaking the law?
Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis stated in an April 24 press release, “Weak Biden Administration border policies allowed this illegal alien to enter and remain in the country despite his multiple law enforcement encounters. We are thankful for our hardworking U.S. CBP officers and Canadian officials for their cooperation in arresting this individual. DHS will continue to work to arrest criminal illegal aliens to protect the American homeland from all threats.”
The first time Ahmed entered the USA, it was near San Luis, Ariz., in late 2022. ICE agents were executing a warrant search for fraud documents in 2024 when they caught and detained him. In April 2025, officials issued an extradition warrant. But by this April, he was already back.
U.S. officials already had Ahmed in their system even before the illegal entry. The DHS press release explained:
Ahmed has a long record of United States military and law enforcement encounters. On March 10, 2012, the U.S.S. Halsey responded to a distress call from an Indian-flagged ship reporting that pirates had hijacked it in the Gulf of Aden.
A Visit, Board, Search and Seizure (VBSS) team conducted boarding operations and encountered Ahmed and nine other armed pirates who had taken the Indian ship hostage by force, where the Navy then logged Ahmed’s fingerprint.
Fast forward to April 14, when an off-duty Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer spotted the Somali alien walking southbound — i.e., toward the nearby U.S.-Canadian border — with a backpack. The officer guessed where Ahmed and his backpack were headed and made his report.
U.S. Border Patrol was on the lookout when Ahmed reached the border. Two hours after the RCMP officer made his report, a U.S. Border Patrol agent caught sight of Ahmed and confronted him. Customs and Border Protection quickly placed the Somali pirate in custody. Border Patrol has Ahmed in custody in the District of North Dakota at the present time.
DHS added:
Said Jama Ahmed[ is] an illegal alien from Somalia, who faces an outstanding arrest warrant for violations of falsely making, using, and forging a passport and for a positive fingerprint match to a 2012 national security threat with ties to Somali piracy.
Hopefully, this pirate won't be terrorizing either the land or the seas for a long time.
Democrats attract slime-balls like honey attracts bears
Another Wild Twist Rocks Democrat Primary Race for Utah's First Congressional District
RedState reported earlier this month about a shakeup of sorts in the Democrat primary for the newly redrawn 1st Congressional District in Utah, where one of the top candidates found himself in the hot seat after his social media history was combed through, and where some pretty repugnant things were found that did not go over well with the state's Mormon community.
Utah state Sen. Nate Blouin (D), 36, the Bernie-backed candidate in the race, frequently demeaned the large voting bloc in the district he wants to represent, used derogatory and vulgar terms when referring to women, and made light of victims of domestic violence, sexual harassment, and assault.
Blouin ended up issuing an apology in which he proclaimed he was not the same man he once was, and said he was deeply ashamed over what he wrote. Mmmhmm.
READ MORE: Dems in Disarray: A Bernie-Backed House Candidate's Controversial Past Catches Up With Him
Here we are, some ten days later, and the statement one of the other Democrat candidates in the race made at the time about Blouin's past offensive remarks has come back to bite her. It's a story my colleague Jennifer Oliver O'Connell touched on in a related piece on Thursday, but I wanted to do a deeper dive so people can see the specific claims made against her.
Salt Lake City Councilwoman Eva Lopez Chavez called on Blouin to withdraw after the story about Blouin's internet history broke, stating that "Recent findings raise serious concerns about Senator Blouin’s judgment, particularly on issues impacting women’s physical safety and the reality of sexual violence." She also described herself as a domestic violence and sexual assault survivor.
Except the outraged councilwoman and self-described "Mexican lesbian" who purports to believe women should be respected is now mired in a much-worse scandal of her own, with four women, including one of her city council colleagues, going on record and accusing her of... unwanted sexual advances and attempts to forcibly restrain them:Victoria Petro, who is Lopez Chavez’s fellow City Council member; Maggie Regier, who worked on Stan Penfold’s mayoral campaign in 2019; Hoang Nguyen, who is now a state representative; and Jen Plumb, now a state senator, described their allegations in interviews with The Salt Lake Tribune. Each person said their allegations arose in social settings before Lopez Chavez joined the City Council in 2023.
[...]
None of the four reported the interactions to police or spoke about them publicly until now. They said they decided to come forward, in part, because of Lopez Chavez’s candidacy for Congress in Utah’s new 1st District and after her reaction to newly disclosed online posts that fellow candidate Nate Blouin made between 2009 and 2015, including statements that minimized sexual assault.
In Petro's case, the alleged incident occurred before they began working on the city council together:
Victoria Petro knew Eva Lopez Chavez before the two began serving on the Salt Lake City Council together, mostly through the Latino community and different jobs at City Hall, when they attended another City Council member's wedding in September 2022.
After a day of dancing and fun, many gathered for an after-party at a local nightclub, where Petro said the night suddenly took a different turn.
"(Lopez) put her hands around my neck, pushed me against one of the pillars so my back was against the wall," she recalled, saying Lopez then used a vulgar expletive to tell her the only reason she dates men "is because a woman hasn't shown me what I really want.The allegations from the three other women who stepped forward are similar in nature and can be read here. In one of them (Nguyen's allegations), Lopez Chavez allegedly held her against a seat in a car and wouldn't let her go until she kissed her.
Some of the alleged victims said they told friends about what happened at the time, which local news stations have confirmed.
Utah news outlet KSL also revealed that Lopez Chavez's alleged behavior was so well known (gosh, this sounds so familiar!) that the chairman of the Salt Lake City Council sent out an email in February warning about it after investigating a previously "undisclosed incident":
"The reports and firsthand accounts of Councilmember Eva Lopez Chavez's past behavior cannot be dismissed or minimized," Salt Lake City Council Chairman Alejandro Puy wrote in an email dated Feb. 12 that KSL obtained. "Based on my own firsthand knowledge, and the experience of some of my colleagues on the council, they do not describe an isolated incident. They suggest a pattern of conduct that has affected colleagues in our own council, myself and many others in our community, and has shaped our working environment. ... It is clear there is a problem that can't be ignored and must be addressed."
For what it's worth, Lopez Chavez has denied the allegations, both in a statement and through her attorney:
Not surprisingly, the Utah Democrat Party is not taking a "believe all women" stance on the allegations against the female Democrat candidate. Instead, they have simply noted that there are procedures in place to review these matters:
The Utah Democratic Party has been made aware of the accusations reported against SLC Council Member Eva Lopez-Chavez. We take allegations of this nature very seriously.
There is a clear process for reviewing conduct concerns: written complaints from victims or witnesses of harassment are handled promptly through our Judicial Standing Committee. Should that process be initiated, we will follow it thoroughly, confidentially, and with care for everyone involved.
We reaffirm that the party does not endorse in contested primaries and encourage voters and delegates to engage directly with candidates through official campaign channels.
The Utah congressional and state primary is on June 23rd. The current frontrunner in the blue district is former Democrat Rep. Ben McAdams (UT-04).
Thursday was the start of the Utah Democrat Party Nominating Convention, and between the Blouin scandal and the disturbing allegations against Lopez Chavez, things undoubtedly will be quite lively. I wonder if any self-respecting woman at the convention will have the nerve to ask party officials if they would have refused to take a position on the allegations the women made had they been against one of the male candidates?
Then again, if Democrats didn't have double standards, then they'd have no standards at all, so it shouldn't be too much of a surprise to see the official party apparatus take a neutral approach in this instance.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
Help RedState continue to report on the Democrats’ radicalism and inform voters as our nation faces a crossroads. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
We know Biden was trying to hide his ineffective policies from the people
HUD urges real estate industry to share neighborhood school and crime data after listing platforms stopped under Biden
Cincinnati police chief fired over refusal to put more officers on streets amid crime surge
Cincinnati police chief fired over refusal to put more officers on streets amid crime surge
Theetge, who has been in the role since 2022 but was a police officer for 35 years, was placed on administrative leave in October over her failure to bring down the city's violent crime rate.
Fear That’s Long Haunted Gun Owners Could Be Erased In Tennessee
Fear That’s Long Haunted Gun Owners Could Be Erased In Tennessee
The Tennessee state Legislature passed a bill Thursday that would expand the right to use deadly force to include property protection, easing a fear long held by gun owners.
The legislation, which would allow citizens to use deadly force to prevent arson, burglary, animal cruelty and robbery in certain situations, passed on party-line votes in the Republican-dominated Tennessee House of Representatives and Tennessee state Senate. Supporters of the legislation argued that law-abiding citizens should be allowed to protect their life’s work, Nashville-area TV station WKRN
“Right now, under current law, if someone is breaking into your property, if they’re stealing from you, if they’re destroying what you’ve worked your entire life to build, you’re expected to wait,” Republican state Rep. Kip Capley said during debate on the measure. “You’re expected to hesitate. You’re expected to second-guess and take a calculated risk at defending what’s yours.”
In most states, the use of deadly force in self-defense is only permissible in situations where a person has “reasonable fear” of being the victim of a violent crime, according to CriminalDefenseLawyer.com.
“Under traditional self-defense laws, the act of brandishing or firing a gun is evaluated like any other use of force. The main question is whether using a gun was reasonably necessary and proportional to an imminent threat of unlawful force,” the site says. “For instance, when an attacker raises a fist or throws a punch, the victim can’t just pull a gun and shoot. A gunshot in these circumstances would normally be more force than necessary for self-protection from non-deadly force.”
“Before using deadly force, a victim must reasonably fear deadly force, which most states define as the threat of being gravely injured or killed or subject to a violent felony (rape, kidnapping, or robbery),” the site states.
The United States Concealed Carry Association said they would advise their members in the state about what the legislation would mean.
“USCCA believes law-abiding Americans have the right to protect themselves, their families, and their homes,” USCCA Communications Director Michael McGonigle told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Tennessee’s legislature has spoken on this issue, and we’ll make sure our members understand what it means for them. As always, we encourage every gun owner to know their state’s laws, get proper training, and carry responsibly.”Republican Gov. Bill Lee did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF about his position on the bill, which is headed to his desk. Opponents of the legislation maintained that people shouldn’t die over property.
“We were taught you don’t kill people over property is because they are not putting at risk an innocent human life,” Democratic state Rep. Justin Pearson said. “What this legislation seems to be doing is lowering that threshold significantly and substantially, and the department is going to have to reteach in future classes for those who get their lifetime permit that you can now kill people over property, and I don’t think that is right.”
Other Democrats who opposed the legislation resorted to personal insults against the bill’s sponsor. Democratic state Rep. Justin Jones took a shot at Capley’s appearance during the debate.“I think the people of your district deserve better, and I hope you will be very serious in considering legislation like this, and you can laugh all you want, but I can see your answers are nonexistent just like your hairline,” Jones said before he was ruled to have broken the rules of the legislative body.
Pearson and Jones were expelled from the Legislature briefly in 2023 after the Tennessee state capitol was stormed by anti-Second Amendment protesters days after Audrey Hale, a 28-year-old female who identified as transgender, killed three children and three adults at Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, before being engaged and fatally wounded by law enforcement,
The National Rifle Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
Terrorism in the making?
15 chemical spraying drones stolen in NJ as FBI investigates possible ‘nightmare scenario’: report
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