30,000-Year-Old Revived Siberian Virus Could Be Our Doomsday Weapon Professor Warns - Have Scientists just Opened the Pandora's box?

MessageToEagle.com – Have scientists just opened the Pandora’s Box?

Some think that reviving the giant 30,000-yeard-old Siberian virus was a bad and dangerous idea.

In this case, scientific curiosity could result in endangering our world in ways we might not yet fully comprehend.

The virus, cubbed Pithovirus sibericum, the virus was found in a 30-metre (98-foot) -deep sample of permanently frozen soil taken from coastal tundra in Chukotka, near the East Siberia Sea, where the average annual temperature is minus 13.4 degrees Celsius (7.8 degrees Fahrenheit).

It belongs to a class of giant viruses that were discovered ten years ago.

Measuring 1.5 micrometers in length, the Pithovirus is the biggest that has ever been found. A micrometre is one millionth of a metre.

The virus that had been locked in the Siberian permafrost for more than 30,000 years has now been revived by French scientists from the National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS) at the University of Aix-Marseille.The Pithovirus is the first member of a new virus family. Scientists say it infects amoebas, a single celled organism, but is not a threat to humans.

“However, according to the researchers, the revival of the virus could mean there may be other threats to human or animal life hidden in the permafrost.
They added that new viruses could be exposed as global warming or industrial exploitation of the polar regions causes permafrost to thaw.

One of the authors of the study Professor Jean-Michel Claverie told the BBC: “It is a recipe for disaster.

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