Giant virus comes back to life after 30,000 years

[FmGrowit]

Giant virus comes back to life after 30,000 years

A couple of excerpts...and commentary

"According to the study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the ancient pathogen was discovered buried 30m (100ft) down in the frozen ground.

Called Pithovirus sibericum, it belongs to a class of giant viruses that were discovered 10 years ago and are all so large that, unlike other viruses, they can be seen under a microscope.
The latest one, measuring 1.5 micrometres in length, is the biggest that has ever been found.
Tests show that it attacks amoebas, which are single-celled organisms, but does not infect humans or other animals."

Wouldn't an amoeba infecting virus be a good thing?


"If it is true that these viruses survive in the same way those amoeba viruses survive, then smallpox is not eradicated from the planet - only the surface," he said.

"By going deeper we may reactivate the possibility that smallpox could become again a disease of humans in modern times."

Maybe it would be wise to stop poking holes hundreds of feet into the permafrost. Sometimes what you don't know really can't hurt you.

​

 

[webmost]

Maybe it would be wise to stop

... stop right there. Since when was wise worth wishing?

Me, I'm waiting for them to clone a mastodon from DNA frozen in the tundra. There's a giant virus for ya.

 

[Brown Thumb]

I gots my virus shots back when I was a kid. I Remember standing in line at schol.
I should be OK.

 

[Mad Oshea]

I have heard of that virus. Interesting. Is it good or bad? They were running a rail line in St. Lewis and dug up a mass grave site from back when the black plaig killed millions. They found the same in the dormant virus. However It wasn't the mastadon they are cloneing, It is a Mammoth, They got the DNA from a baby Mammoth and are itroducing it in an elephant. National Geografic. April 2013
Good post

 

[Southern Planter]

Me, I'm waiting for them to clone a mastodon from DNA frozen in the tundra. There's a giant virus for ya.

I want a pet mastodon. When someone gets stuck in the mud I can say "hang on mate, I'll got get my pet mastodon to pull you out!"

However It wasn't the mastadon they are cloneing, It is a Mammoth

We don't want no stinking mammoth, we want a mastodon.

On the islands West of California there was a pygmy mastodon, full grown about the size of a Saint Bernard dog. That would be Uber Kewl.

 

[leverhead]

...On the islands east of California there was a pygmy mastodon...

It's a long way to the islands East of California.

 

[Southern Planter]

Oops, thanks.

 

[Southern Planter]

On a serious note, I don't think I would agree with this chap:

Professor Jean-Michel Claverie, from the National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS) at the University of Aix-Marseille in France, said: "This is the first time we've seen a virus that's still infectious after this length of time."

Uwe George writes about a viable pathogen found in a Permian salt core in Germany. (In The Deserts of The Earth).

 

[Mad Oshea]

Giant virus comes back to life after 30,000 years

A couple of excerpts...and commentary

"According to the study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the ancient pathogen was discovered buried 30m (100ft) down in the frozen ground.

Called Pithovirus sibericum, it belongs to a class of giant viruses that were discovered 10 years ago and are all so large that, unlike other viruses, they can be seen under a microscope.
The latest one, measuring 1.5 micrometres in length, is the biggest that has ever been found.
Tests show that it attacks amoebas, which are single-celled organisms, but does not infect humans or other animals."

Wouldn't an amoeba infecting virus be a good thing?


"If it is true that these viruses survive in the same way those amoeba viruses survive, then smallpox is not eradicated from the planet - only the surface," he said.

"By going deeper we may reactivate the possibility that smallpox could become again a disease of humans in modern times."

Maybe it would be wise to stop poking holes hundreds of feet into the permafrost. Sometimes what you don't know really can't hurt you.

​

You would think it a good thing but They wen't on to small pox ect. Maybe the extiction of the dinas. were from this type of thing, not the ice. 100' deep hum?