30,000-Year-Old Virus to Be Reanimated

30,000 year old virus to be reanimated

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Julia Bartoli & Chantal Abergel, IGS, CNRS/AMU[/caption]Scientists are working to reanimate a virus that has been locked in Siberian permafrost for 30,000 years. Previous virus's found in the same area have not been shown as deadly, and lets hope this one is the same. From IFLScience:Scientists will attempt to reanimate a long extinct 30,000-year-old “giant” virus discovered frozen in the permafrost of Siberia. Found buried 30 meters (100 feet) deep in the frozen soil, this could be the second time that the team of researchers will reawaken a prehistoric virus. Called Mollivirus sibericum, this is the fourth prehistoric virus to have been discovered in the last decade and raises questions about what other ones might be locked in the icy tundra.

Giant viruses are those that measure longer than half a micron, or a thousandth of a millimeter, and thus can be observed under a light microscope, unlike other viruses that are far too tiny. Mollivirus sibericum – literally “soft virus from Siberia” – comes in at 0.6 microns, just making it into the giant virus group. Before attempting to revive it, the team of researchers plan on determining if the virus is deadly to animals or humans, though considering all previous examples have turned out to be harmless, the likelihood that this one proves deadly is not very high.See the whole story at IFLScience.[mwi-cat-listing cat="94" ppp="4" cols="4" desc="false" type="view" btn_color="black" ]