Russia Scientist Resurrects Frozen Zombie Virus After 48,000 Years

The ability of these " zombie " viruses to infect higher animals, including humans, remains unclear, but researchers warn this suggests viruses "hibernate" under permafrost around the world. is a real threat to humanity.

According to CNN, French professor Jean-Michel Claverie (from the French National Center for Scientific Research CNRS and Aix Marseille University) found these "zombie" virus strains in a frozen state for 48,000 years in class. the soil of an underground, permafrost-covered lake in Russia's frigid Siberian desert, along with several "younger" samples dating back to 27,000 years from a number of other sources, including the carcass of a woolly mammoth twisted.

Professor Claverie and his colleagues brought these "zombie" back to the lab and tried to revive it. Just like a horror movie, these little zombies not only come back to life, but quickly act as if they had never spent tens of thousands of years in the ice tomb.

Amoeba - tiny single-celled organisms - cultured in a laboratory are exposed to the virus and quickly infected by ancient "zombie".

"We see these amoebic viruses as a proxy for all the other viruses that can survive in the permafrost. We see traces of many, many types there. If the virus has infected the amoeba. If they are still alive, there is no reason why other species should not be alive and still able to infect the host," Professor Claverie warned.

The work has just been published in the journal Viruses.

The study adds to the "red alarm" that scientists around the world have been sounding over the years, as the threat of ancient viruses and bacteria revives as human-caused global warming. man caused the permafrost to melt everywhere.

The threat may have come true in 2016, when anthrax bacteria suddenly appeared in Siberia, infecting people and reindeer. It is suspected by the academic community to be an ancient bacteria that has resurrected after 2 million years of hibernation.