A giant ancient virus was just uncovered in melting ice

[AF-Roger]

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 (and even some bacteria), size-wise, these ancient microbes had a lot more genes.

Read more A giant ancient virus was just uncovered in melting ice — and it won’t be the last

 

[osydious]

So, what you're basically implying is: Make sure you watch every zombie movie and play every zombie game known to mankind. One of these days, scientists are going to wish they never played God and kill us all. Just kidding on the last part.

But, dang, what if they do discover a virus that could kill off the blood cells and bring them back to life. I mean, given the fact that's not possible, but what if? There's always that question lingering in the back of people's minds and tongue. What if one day we actually experience a zombie apocalypse and it's due to scientists wanting to discover the meaning of life or whatever, you know?

 

[marketerbybirth]

we can only hope that we are not going to have some deadly viruses. However its something enough to be afraid of as we already have a number of killing micro organism and utterly uncontrolled like Congo and Nigleria. One thing I am wondering about is their discovery.... how they manage to pin point at locations with a possibility of such things... after all we have millions of tons of ice reservoirs across the globe.

A few years a panicky situation started developing about the green house effect and global warming, and now it has started showing its implications. But I am too sad that global industrial leaders are still not doing enough everyone wants money and they really dont care, for what their future generations are going to face

 

[azgold]

One thing I am wondering about is their discovery.... how they manage to pin point at locations with a possibility of such things... after all we have millions of tons of ice reservoirs across the globe.

Excellent question! Wish I knew the answer.

Anybody ever see John Carpenter's, The Thing (1982)? Check it out. That's what can happen when you mess with this stuff.

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[T J Tutor]

Excellent question! Wish I knew the answer.

Anybody ever see John Carpenter's, The Thing (1982)? Check it out. That's what can happen when you mess with this stuff.

The original was 1951 with James Arness as the Thing. Black and white classic!

I'll bet there is a great deal more in the polar ice caps to come.

 

[azgold]

The original was 1951 with James Arness as the Thing. Black and white classic!

I'll bet there is a great deal more in the polar ice caps to come.

Yup, I have seen it but prefer John Carpenter's version. Same deal though - bad things happened by waking the sleeping virus.

I'm sure you're right about more stuff to come, TJ.