Ancient never-before-seen viruses discovered locked up in Tibetan glacier

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

For the past 15,000 years, a glacier on the northwestern Tibetan Plateau of China has hosted a party for some unusual guests: an ensemble of frozen viruses, many of them unknown to modern science.

Scientists recently broke up this party after taking a look at two ice cores from this Tibetan glacier, revealing the existence of 28 never-before-seen virus groups.

Investigating these mysterious viruses could help scientists on two fronts: For one, these stowaways can teach researchers which viruses thrived in different climates and environments over time, the researchers wrote in a paper posted on the bioRxiv database on Jan. 7.

"However, in a worst-case scenario, this ice melt [from climate change] could release pathogens into the environment," the researchers wrote in the study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed. If this happens, it's best to know as much about these viruses as possible, the researchers wrote.

https://www.livescience.com/unknown-viruses-discovered-tibetan-glacier.html

[Midnight Writer]

1. Similar danger from deforestation. Ancient woodlands cleared and plowed, releasing God knows what.

[shanti]

3. And the rain forest n/t

[DanieRains]

2. Lets Spend Trillions On The Military!

To stay safe.

[albacore]

4. I'm getting the feeling this thing won't end with a bang...

... but with billions of people getting some nasty bug from the Past.
And resolving our overpopulation problem. Quickly.

Those B grade sci-fi movies from a few decades ago might not have been so laughable after all.

[ret5hd]

5. Viruses are earths t-cells...attack the infection.

[Ilsa]

7. The movie Contagion.

Gwyneth Paltrow character visits some new hotel in China near where land was cleared, sending animals from their wild homes to rural farm areas, passing along a nasty new virus to farm animals that are served at the hotel. Cross-contamination from the dead animals in the kitchen started it.

Good movie.

[MFM008]

6. Terrific

As if Ebola
Influenza
Tuberculosis
And other horrors arent bad enough.

[NickB79]

8. There are victims of smallpox, anthrax and Spanish flu buried in the tundra

Lots of frozen bodies, contaminated with known lethal diseases, just waiting for the permafrost to thaw.