Ötzi the Iceman hosts yeasts that eat museum preservatives
The 5,300 year old mummy is a living ecosystem where cold adapted microorganisms have survived for millennia and even learned to consume modern cleaning chemicals.
For over 5,000 years, the mummy known as Ötzi the Iceman has carried a hidden community of microbes through the ice of the Italian Alps and into modern museum preservation. While some of these bacteria originated in his own gut during his lifetime, others are specialized yeasts that joined him from the glacier environment. These microorganisms are so resilient that they remain active even in the mummy's current storage conditions of minus 6 degrees Celsius.
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