There are more than 200,000 species of plant life on planet earth, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. The history of land plants is 420 million years old, and no one can say how many species have lived and died off over the years.
While many of these species are gone for good, there is hope that we can bring at least some of these plants back to life. In 2008, scientists in Israel did exactly that. They found 2,000-year-old seeds from a species of date tree that had become extinct. After planting the seeds, amazingly, one of them grew.
In 2012, scientists in Russia discovered seeds that were 32,000 years old. These seeds were found preserved in ice 38 meters below the ground. While the seeds were damaged, the scientists were still able to grow the seeds in a laboratory. Over a year, the plants grew, flowered, and produced their own seeds.
While we will probably continue to find and revive life from the distant past, some people are looking towards the future. For years, people have been burying time capsules beneath the earth, filling them with messages and hoping that folks in the future will discover them.
People who make time capsules often intend for them to be opened in 50 or 100 years, but the KEO project has planned a much longer time capsule. They intend for humans in the far distant future to open the time capsule, and they are making sure that it will be nearly impossible to open it earlier. The KEO project is putting its time capsule in a satellite and sending it into space. It will be scheduled to return to earth 50,000 years in the future.
The KEO time capsule will carry a diamond that contains a sample of air, water, dirt, and a drop of human blood. On the outside of the diamond, there will be a carving of human DNA. In addition to the diamond, there will be photographs of people from all cultures and messages written by people all over the world.