Surprise discoveries that were thousands of years in the making dominated this week’s science news, with scientists discovering that Ötzi the Iceman’s body was teeming with ancient yeasts, which scientists promptly used to make a sourdough.
First discovered in Italy’s Ötztal Alps in September 1991, Ötzi was a prehistoric man who died, likely by murder, some 5,300 years ago before being mummified naturally inside glacier ice. But bad news for Ötzi was good news for four strains of cold-adapted glacier yeasts, which infiltrated his body shortly after his death and may still be active today. In fact, some of these yeasts are just right for baking bread — the scientists used it to make a sourdough they described as “very very good.”
