As the world melts ... the permafrost weakens every year, and as well as vast amounts of methane gas being released (thus speeding up global warming), there is another just as deadly threat released.
 |
| Steve McQueen Knew All About The Biggest Viruses |
Its the viruses, locked away for millennia and more, that were sealed in
the frozen ground when the world was a very different place, and
effectively an alien planet. Some of these viruses that have been locked
away are for illnesses and creatures that we no longer have any
particular defence against.
And if you think this is all 'Sci-Fi' nonsense, consider this fact. It was reported on the 8th of September 2015 by Phys.org that French researchers had found a 'giant virus' which they had named as 'Mollivirus Sibericum' (Soft virus from Siberia). It was described as 'giant' because it was longer than half a micron in length ..... that's a thousandth of a millimetre in normal parlance. Just for the record it was measured as 0.6 microns.
It was not animated (i.e. 'Living'), but it was in a state from which they believed it would self reanimate if allowed to thaw. They had no idea if the virus posed any threat to humans or any living animal and so were 'investigating' this (presumably via DNA and computer simulations), before they animated it.
Now knowing what a curious monkey we are, even if the French team decide not to reanimate this virus "Just to see what it does", then someone somewhere will. This particular virus is described as not only larger than usual, but disturbingly, it was also said to be far more genetically complex than most viruses circulating today.
Even if this particular virus causes no problems to man nor beast, there must be millions or billions of ancient viruses being released every summer, and surely one will prove to be dangerous and have found a suitable host. Since 2003 alone, we have found four types of 'prehistoric' viruses, and countless more are expected to be found in the next few years, as ever older viruses are released from deeper in the permafrost.
That Zombie Plague may be coming to the human race a lot faster than we imagined.
It was not animated (i.e. 'Living'), but it was in a state from which they believed it would self reanimate if allowed to thaw. They had no idea if the virus posed any threat to humans or any living animal and so were 'investigating' this (presumably via DNA and computer simulations), before they animated it.
Now knowing what a curious monkey we are, even if the French team decide not to reanimate this virus "Just to see what it does", then someone somewhere will. This particular virus is described as not only larger than usual, but disturbingly, it was also said to be far more genetically complex than most viruses circulating today.
Even if this particular virus causes no problems to man nor beast, there must be millions or billions of ancient viruses being released every summer, and surely one will prove to be dangerous and have found a suitable host. Since 2003 alone, we have found four types of 'prehistoric' viruses, and countless more are expected to be found in the next few years, as ever older viruses are released from deeper in the permafrost.
That Zombie Plague may be coming to the human race a lot faster than we imagined.
Isn't virus "technology" being used to combat HIV? Every cloud...
ReplyDeleteThat may not save us if an ancient virus reanimates in the Tundra and gets into our population pool.
Delete