Scientists Are About To Resurrect A 30,000-Year-Old Virus “To Discover If It Is Harmful To Humans”

[Milliesmom]

A ‘monster’ virus which has lain dormant in the frozen wastelands of northeastern Russia is about to be resurrected by researchers curious of its potential effects.



http://www.trueactivist.com/scientists-are-about-to-resurrect-a-30000-year-old-virus-to-discover-if-it-is-harmful-to-humans/


Are they kidding us, what?? This is scary stuff!

[CBGLuthier]

1. Science Bad!!

We either study and learn how to fight things like it or we can wallow in our ignorance and fear and get killed by something like it.

[LeftOfWest]

2. Potential weapon, they always want weapons.

always.

scary stuff indeed, thanks for this post

[Lyric]

3. The permafrost in the Russian tundra is pretty much destined to melt at this point.

Viruses are not "alive" in the same way as other living things; they are basically just a bundle of DNA. They have no organs or cells, they don't breathe, eat, or excrete, and they only "reproduce" by commanding the cells of other organisms to manufacture more viruses.

It's entirely plausible that this virus is still very much "alive" (i.e., able to infect other organisms) out there, even after being frozen for this long. It might be all over the permafrost layer, for all we know. To me it seems much better to study this thing now in a tightly controlled environment, so we can prepare for it (maybe even create a vaccine), than to risk it being released into the "wild" far and wide by climate change-related permafrost melt, and having a global pandemic of a virus we know absolutely nothing about.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

[Cal33]

6. I read many years ago that scientists had discovered live tuberculosis bacilli in

ancient Egyptian mummies. TB bacilli are tough germs, and these were no longer
able to cause disease in living humans. But bacilli are of a higher order than
viruses. They do have organelles, etc. and can multiply on their own. Viruses
are more primitive. They use the organelles of the host cells they have invaded
in order to function and multiply.

[Xyzse]

11. Absolutely agreed. Thank you for the post.

[jwirr]

23. Totally agree. If we do not study it and the permafrost melts

we will have a full blown epidemic on our hands with no idea what can be done about it.

On the other hand - it is still scary.

[Nailzberg]

4. Doesn't scare me. I'm excited to live in the age of science.

We face the possibility with climate change, rising temps, ancient ice and tundra thaw, of viruses from the past revitalizing in the wild - leaving us years behind knowing anything about them. If we're discovering these now, we should research them now, because we can't know if they'll remain dormant for long.

First we should find out if this is a harmful virus. I'm guess no. Just based on: we survived and the virus is a Popsicle. But I'll leave it for researchers to determine. If its harmful, a vaccine can developed in case we ever need it.

Second, let's say it is harmless. Then we observe the properties of the virus. It could be harmless to us, yet lethal to some other viruses. Or be an ideal genetic host for a virus-killer gene to be stitched into. There's been some good research into using a hosted virus to kill HIV, for example. I think they're studying different certain forms of leukemia for that style treatment, too.

Science this thing. If its deadly, we got the head start. If its not, maybe we can use it. The worst thing we can do is not investigate it.

[TexasProgresive]

5. Better to do it in the lab and find out

then to have it infect someone the natural way.

[FLPanhandle]

7. It's only scary stuff for the ignorant

This is the smart and prudent thing to do.

[Bonx]

22. I'm still recovering from the Moon bombing.

[Codeine]

8. Fantastic! This is called learning.

The ignorant and science-phobic will just have to cope.

[Whiskeytide]

9. Commie Zombies!!

They're always the worst zombies!

[Baitball Blogger]

10. Sometimes I love science. And sometimes...

[MineralMan]

12. That is a story that has been exaggerated by your linked source.

The reality is that the virus has already been resurrected, as you can learn at the link below:

http://www.nature.com/news/giant-virus-resurrected-from-30-000-year-old-ice-1.14801

Unlike your link, this is an actual science publication link to an actual scientific journal. Nature is a well-respected journal that presents scientific information in language lay readers can easily understand. In that link, you will learn that this type of virus typically infects amoebas, which is how they found it, by using amoebas as bait. The likelihood that it will be dangerous to humans is almost nonexistent.

I encourage you to avoid linking to websites like the one you used. Instead, when you find such a hyperbolic, click-bait link, you do a Google search and look for a legitimate scientific link, such as the one I provided above. That way, you will avoid overstated and inaccurately presented fear-mongering stories about scientific research.

Thank you for your attention.

[snooper2]

13. "true activist" sounds like a real legit place to get information from

LOL

[MineralMan]

15. It's a clickbait site, full of hypberbole written by

writers who like to expand on actual information by adding inflammatory speculations. Any story there should be checked in the legitimate science media before posting on DU. In fact, stories from this clickbait site shouldn't be posted as factual information. Instead, a Google search will lead to trustworthy sources on the same subject, without the speculative nonsense.

[Nye Bevan]

14. I've seen enough "Doctor Who" episodes to know that this might not be a good idea (nt)

[MineralMan]

16. Uh, Doctor Who is a fictional television show with

a science fiction theme. It's interesting and entertaining, but is not a source of factual information, as I'm sure you know.

[Glassunion]

19. That's what Star Trek is for!

Amirite?!

[lunatica]

25. urrite! But the Walking Dead is right also

[Calista241]

17. Zombie Apocolypse incoming! n/t

[Runningdawg]

18. The scientific version of

Here- Hold my beer and watch this.
What usually follows is stupidity beyond belief and either and ambulance or a body bag.

[yawnmaster]

20. Again people fear what they don't understand and that site tries to monopolize on that...

this is a viable virus in nature. should it not be understood, especially since more are likely to become uncovered?

And the research on this particular virus has already been done and it does not infect human cells.

would one rather find out a newly discovered virus infects humans only after it has infected a human in an uncontrolled environment? (not just a human cell in a plate).

[Glassunion]

21. Ohnoes! Sky Falling!!! Everybody Panic!!!

Oh... wait. Never mind.

It's cool.

[lunatica]

24. The mystery of the Walking Dead plague solved!

[Orrex]

26. Well, it's organic, so it must be good

Thank god it's not some evil GMO, because then we'd have real trouble.

[TlalocW]

27. Science is not for pussies...

TlalocW