Virus Locked In Siberian Ice For 30,000 Years Is Revived In Lab
Scientists at a laboratory in France have thawed out and revived an ancient virus found in the Siberian permafrost, making it infectious again for the first time in 30,000 years.
The giant virus known as Pithovirus sibericum was discovered about 100 feet deep in coastal tundra. The pathogen infects tiny amoebas — simple, one-celled organisms.
It isn’t dangerous to humans, but its reanimation raises questions about what else might be lurking under the ice, says the French and Russian team that brought it back to life. Their work is in the latest issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS.
“The revival of such an ancestral amoeba-infecting virus … suggests that the thawing of permafrost either from global warming or industrial exploitation of circumpolar regions might not be exempt from future threats to human or animal health,” the scientists write.
I think the question is more that when the zombie apocalypse happens 1) Do zombies have all the rights of citizens 2) will they be considered a protected class and 3) will they be as bored of zombies as the living are since zombies have been played out for decades except for 28 days later.Report
She said it’s the time of the season for zombies. I tried to tell her “No”, but she’s not there.Report
Perhaps she went on an odyssey to consult an oracle.Report
Keep Larry Ellison out of this!Report
“Ellison.” “Larry Ellison.” “Not like you. Way more.”
Man, that would have been discouraging.Report
Was her voice soft and cool? Were her eyes clear and bright?Report
And… somehow, in some way that I don’t understand, this comment led me off on a 45 minute trip through covers of “California Dreamin'”. Which I loved from the first time I heard it, and has always been sort of anthem for me, given the number of times that I almost but not quite ended up in California.Report
its reanimation raises questions about what else might be lurking under the ice
Here are the answers to what else might be lurking under the ice:
1. Cthulu
2. Godzilla
3. Krakken (Release it!)
4. The Thing (Kurt Russell version)Report
Or a pyramid, aka, “predators and aliens”. ZOMG, we’re all DOOOOMED.Report
Hmmmmmmmmm, perhaps that answers the questions of ‘what were the Denisovians, really?’ and ‘what happened to the Neanderthal?’.
Zombie cavemen!Report