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posted by girlwhowaspluggedout on Tuesday March 04 2014, @06:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the but-does-it-still-taste-fresh dept.

hubie writes:

"A group at the Institut de Microbiologie de la Mediterranee, Aix Marseille Universite, revived a "giant" virus that had been embedded in permafrost for approximately 30,000 years. The virus was found in the tundra near East Siberia and is thus named Pithovirus sibericum. It is the latest entry in the class of large viruses called Megaviridae, which are so large that they are visible under an ordinary optical microscope:

P. sibericum is, on the scale of viruses, a giant - it has 500 genes, whereas the influenza virus has only eight.

This particular virus is harmless to humans and animals, but it demonstrates there could be unknown health repercussions as more permafrost thaws as the result of a warming planet."

 
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  • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Tuesday March 04 2014, @08:12AM

    by hemocyanin (186) on Tuesday March 04 2014, @08:12AM (#10506) Journal

    No horror movie potential. You still need a microscope. Now this bacteria on the other hand, at 0.75mm, can be seen with the naked eye: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiomargarita_namibie nsis [wikipedia.org]

    Now you've got a plot device -- you could film people being infected by an Evil Genius' GM version, modded to infect humans. Someone goes swimming and all of sudden, a cloud of fluorescent green giant bacteria gloms onto them and turns them into infectious mermaid-like zombies, spewing ever more bacteria where ever they swim. Florida quickly succumbs.

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  • (Score: 1) by sjames on Tuesday March 04 2014, @08:19AM

    by sjames (2882) on Tuesday March 04 2014, @08:19AM (#10510) Journal

    Why not. Florida already appears to be the home state of the face eating zombie and some sort of disease that causes pathological indecision. And they have cops that have to taze little girls so they don't get beat up.