After watching Spielberg's Jurassic Park one was quite thankful that the dinosaur was extinct, as one was not very confident of facing even a baby dinosaur in real life, let alone a full grown one. Reviving an extinct creature from a DNA sample embedded in ancient amber was simply the work of someone with a beautifully fertile imagination.
Now about a decade later suddenly one learns that scientists have succeeded in reviving microbes recovered from deep below the Antarctic glaciers in a laboratory. These microbes are as old as eight million years .
This achievement raises all kinds of questions. The first and foremost is that by accident our scientists could bring to life some creatures or even some disease to which the modern human race has no answer. Then it is also possible that as the polar ice gradually melts due to climate change these organisms could themselves come to life. This again highlights the necessity of preserving our environment and preventing climate change.
Finally the ability of organisms to survive in such harsh conditions raises the possibility that similar organisms also exist on other planets in our solar system. The only scary possibility is that instead of finding organisms on planets similar to our own we may end up finding organisms on far flung planets having far more extreme characteristics than we had bargained for.
These are not only scary thoughts meant to panic people but to emphasize the need for sensible action in the matter.