History is a fantastic teacher, especially when it helps us see where and how things have gone wrong or right in the past, and to improve from those experiences. Archeology, too, is another field that has plenty of knowledge and information to dispense to the masses. Well, it seems that the combination of an ancient squirrel, climate change and French scientists is a potent one, as they combined to discover an ancient virus known as Mollivirus sibericum.
Apparently, this particular virus had remained undisturbed for 30,000 years as it resided around 30 meters deep in the Siberian permafrost. Astrobiologists have actually obtained core samples in their search for life, before stumbling on research which revived a plant from a seed that had been dormant for the better part of an estimated 30,000 years. Results started to get interesting when the seed came into contact with an ancient squirrel’s nest.
Claverie mentioned, “We’re not stupid enough to revive a virus that may pose a threat to human health.We use amoeba as bait to fish out whatever viruses may be in that specific sample. But every once in a while, we see them die and that’s when we know somebody must be killing them. This way, we know which to isolate from the others.”
Who knows, some sort of zombie apocalypse might happen simply because of an unknown, ancient virus being improperly handled in the future?
Filed in . Read more about Science. Source: edition.cnn