Disir
Platinum Member
- Sep 30, 2011
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Let's get one thing out of the way really quickly: the ancient, giant virus recently discovered in melting Arctic ice is not going to kill you.
But here's the bad news: It's not the first ancient virus that scientists have found frozen - it's the fourth found since 2003. And you can be sure it won't be the last. And with climate change causing massive melts, it's not totally alarmist to suggest that something deadly might one day emerge from a long, icy sleep.
As if climate change didn't already suck enough, right?
The newly discovered, 30,000-year-old virus is reported in a paper published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Mollivirus sibericum is a whopping .6 microns across, making it what scientists call a giant virus. In addition to towering over modern viruses, size-wise, these ancient microbes had a lot more genes.
Giant ancient virus uncovered in melting ice
So, of course there is a lot of fear in reanimating this virus but here is the other side of the argument:
Siberian virus, 'asleep' for 30,000 years, could cure rare eye disease, says expert
But here's the bad news: It's not the first ancient virus that scientists have found frozen - it's the fourth found since 2003. And you can be sure it won't be the last. And with climate change causing massive melts, it's not totally alarmist to suggest that something deadly might one day emerge from a long, icy sleep.
As if climate change didn't already suck enough, right?
The newly discovered, 30,000-year-old virus is reported in a paper published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Mollivirus sibericum is a whopping .6 microns across, making it what scientists call a giant virus. In addition to towering over modern viruses, size-wise, these ancient microbes had a lot more genes.
Giant ancient virus uncovered in melting ice
So, of course there is a lot of fear in reanimating this virus but here is the other side of the argument:
Siberian virus, 'asleep' for 30,000 years, could cure rare eye disease, says expert
