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Please tell me that virusses and bacteria can't be revived after 30k years in ice, or that our imune system is able to remember its defenses against virusses an
by erikb 10y ago
Please tell me that virusses and bacteria can't be revived after 30k years in ice, or that our imune system is able to remember its defenses against virusses and bacteria it hasn't seen for 30k years.
- tdy721 10y ago"Revive" a virus? ...please elaborate!
- erikb 10y agoVirus in position (x,y,z). It's f'n cold around it. It freezes. 30k years pass. Some scientist grabs ice and melts it. Virus is back. I know it was quite hard to wrap one's head around this. Sorry that I didn't explain it more indepth to non initiated. That was so elitist of me. (PS: I know what you want to say, but it's your own fault for arguing that way.)
- thaumasiotes 10y ago> (PS: I know what you want to say, but it's your own fault for arguing that way.) If that's the game you're going to play, what was the point of your original comment? You're claiming to have known when you posted it that it was nonsense.
- tdy721 10y agoAhh, "The Andromeda Strain", good book that one.
- adrianN 10y agoOur immune system is pretty good at identifying all kinds of foreign proteins. Unless a virus or bacterium has specifically evolved to evade our immune system, its chances are pretty bad. I wouldn't be too worried.
- anotheryou 10y agoand if we find natural antibiotics there is a good chance they work even better today, because adaption of the germs reverts over time.
- thaumasiotes 10y agotdy721 has been downvoted, but as far as I'm aware he's got the right idea. Viruses don't die. When outside a host, they basically just crystallize. If a plant can be viable after 30k years, a virus can definitely also be viable after the same 30k years.
- rhinoceraptor 10y agoThis is one of the fears with global warming, that a virus trapped in ice may be thawed and we would be vulnerable to it.
- DanBC 10y agoThis page lists a few fiction books that involve people somehow discovering ancient viruses at the antarctic. http://www.phys.barnard.edu/~kay/polar/genre.php http://www.phys.barnard.edu/~kay/polar/genre.php There's also a surprising number of Nazi secret bases.