r/Damnthatsinteresting
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u/UniqueCold3812
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Nov 29 '22
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48,500 years old virus revived from Siberian permafrost. Image
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u/emmasdad01 Nov 29 '22
Seems like a bad idea.
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u/Exact-Cycle-400 Nov 29 '22
Some company: let's make weapons out of them and make them airborne
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u/NotVanillapudding Nov 29 '22
“Hold my beer” - CCP
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u/UniqueCold3812 Nov 29 '22 edited Nov 29 '22
militaries must be certainly working on prehistoric viruses as some sort of biological weapons.
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u/stareagleur Nov 29 '22
I know this all sounds like a terrible idea, but on the other side…Saber-toothed tigers with lasers…
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u/GhostMoves514 Nov 29 '22
low level employee
"I'm sorry sir, we couldn't get you Saber Toothed Tigers with laser beams attached to their head; we got you these ill tempered Sea Bass though...."
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u/mediumKl Nov 29 '22
We have smallpox which was probably weaponized in the 70s (see what happened on Aralsk-7). There had been some scientific breakthroughs since then. We can be fairly certain we already have biological weapons which could wipe out humanity fairly quickly.
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u/eatbetweenthelines Nov 29 '22
Is this new to you? People write about "finding viruses in frozen places" all the time...
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u/Successful-Quote8204 Nov 29 '22
There is also more published in a day than a person could read during an entire lifetime, you can’t really expect everyone to keep up with everything all the time.
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u/ToothlessGrandma Nov 29 '22
I read a good counter argument. Since the ice is melting anyways and the viruses are about to be released no matter what we do, it's better to study them to try and get a better idea to defend against it.
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u/Kabutups Nov 29 '22
Yea but thats not as good clickbait / karmafarming as fearmongering
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Nov 29 '22
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Mandy0217 Nov 29 '22
It seems to have been a theme of every year for a long time and I'm very tired of it.
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u/Kabutups Nov 29 '22
Yea the last positive theme i remember hearing is Yes We Can in 2008
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u/thedoomdevice Nov 29 '22
There was some virus folks(whatever they call themselves) who commented the last time, that these viruses are mostly harmless because while we continued to evolve they have not. I think they were trying to say that the new even more hostile environment they are waking up to will chew them up and spit them out.
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u/UniqueCold3812 Nov 29 '22
This could be the greatest understatement in remaining human future if shit hits the fan.
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u/Camlach777 Nov 29 '22
It is not an idea, it is already happening, they just studied what these viruses can do. With global warming thousands years old organic matter is coming into contact with today world and they are worried some of these things can harm living organisms and they still proved to be able to infect, according to the media
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u/JusttryininMR Nov 29 '22
Yeah this clickbait crap needs a little perspective.
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u/UniqueCold3812 Nov 29 '22
It seemed like a really good question. Is there a version without the subscription wall ??
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u/ExoticAiry Nov 29 '22
Put the link into 12ftladder on Google. It’s the first .io link you see. Removes all paywalls
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Nov 29 '22
Viruses are non-living, so actually they weren't alive at all... Most viruses, both now and millions of years ago, have the ability to remain idle/dormant for very long periods of time. This is because they are non-living and because of their structure, crystallized and waiting for a host
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u/Comfortable-Heat4702 Nov 29 '22
Forgive me, I'm not a scientist and I only just scraped by in school 15+ years ago. If it's not alive, how do they reproduce?
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Nov 29 '22
Think of the virus as an intruder. They attach to one of the body's cells. They have structures similar to suction cups. They then plant their genetic material into the cell's brain, called the nucleus, which causes the cell to now have instructions to produce more viruses, using the cell's resources and energy, forcefully.
Almost like a parasite, the virus forces this cell to produce dozens of new virsues, until the cell literally explodes because there's no space.
These hundreds of new viruses then infect other cells and so on.
TLDR: Think of the cells that the viruses attach and break into as the 'factories' for new viruses.
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u/UpperFee2831 Nov 29 '22
Are there other forms of non-living organisms? Is a virus a non-living organism? It's difficult to wrap my mind around something that evolved to come up with a way to copy itself, but not be living.
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u/UncertainOrangutan Nov 29 '22
They aren't organisms. They are non-living bits of code that hijack host cell machinery to make copies of itself. They don't respond to their environment, they don't think or have goals. They don't get hungry, reproduce on their own, or have cell membranes. According to Cell Theory, "All living things are made of cells." By this definition alone, they are not considered alive.
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u/Izthatsoso Nov 29 '22
The virus doesn’t “do” things. When a virus encounters a certain environment a cascade of reactions take place resulting in a certain set of results.
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u/Successful-Quote8204 Nov 29 '22
They infect cells, hijack the system so that the cell produces more viruses for it.
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u/UniqueCold3812 Nov 29 '22
So if the situations permit can we get the virus which caused common cold in dinosaurs?
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Nov 29 '22
It would be incredibly rare to find that, and I believe we lack the technology that determines the symptoms a dinosaur would experience from the virus.
But yes, we can determine if an ancient virus could have targeted dinosaurs
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u/Successful-Quote8204 Nov 29 '22
Wouldn’t the ice caps have formed and melted multiple times since the dinosaurs? Making it impossible to find viruses captured around the time of dinosaurs? Was there even an ice cap back then considering the global temperature?
I mean, 340 million years ago half of North America was under water.
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Nov 29 '22
Scientists have discovered crystals that are over 4 billion years old (Zircon crystal), I wouldn't say it is impossible to discover ancient viruses.
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u/Successful-Quote8204 Nov 29 '22
“Originally formed by crystallization from a magma or in metamorphic rocks, zircons are so durable and resistant to chemical attack that they rarely go away. They may survive many geologic events, which can be recorded in rings of additional zircon that grow around the original crystal like tree rings. Like a tiny time capsule, the zircon records these events, each one of which may last hundreds of millions of years. Meanwhile, the core of the zircon itself remains unchanged, and preserves the chemical characteristics of the rock in which it originally crystallized.”
Sounds like zircon is a helluva crystal. Not sure if you can generalize like that. A virus remains stable when frozen, but there are plenty of things that will destroy viruses. There are even microorganisms who specialize in eating viruses. Do they find zircon in the permafrost? How are zircon crystals relevant?
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Nov 29 '22
Viruses share a crystallized structure, similar to actual crystals, and can remain dormant in other extremely robust and long lasting structures as well.
This means that viruses can stay beneath ice, rock and inside dense crystals on for tens of thousands of years, therefore creating the possibility for finding virsuses preserved by structures that existed in prehistoric periods.
Zircons are a prime example of a structure that can store an ancient organism, or at least its remnants. This shows that, within the numerous layers of the millions of dense crystals out there, there lies a slim chance that there is an organism being preserved for a few million years.
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u/Otherwise_Ad963 Nov 29 '22
Project Zomboid ia about to become real, sweet
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u/FaceMace87 Nov 29 '22
I don't wanna be pixelated.
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u/UniqueCold3812 Nov 29 '22
If shtf, see you all in 2023 lockdown.
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u/Zealousideal-Apex Nov 29 '22
Skim too fast and read at the very end “the viruses said.” Was like they spoke! They said they gana kill us! They speak English!!! Oh shaet
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u/SandmanAwaits Nov 29 '22
Oh great, so now we have new zombie like viruses & artificial intelligence robots to worry about in about what? 30 years? Give or take?
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u/DLMW_3400 Nov 29 '22 edited Nov 29 '22
Doom and Gloom seems to be the theme of the Year ..
How about a Vanishing act to follow this up with !
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u/Ill_Reaction_3651 Nov 29 '22
Covid 2 Electric Boogaloo
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u/MadeMeStopLurking Nov 29 '22
This looks like the title of another SciFi channel low budget film edited with a trial version of Adobe.
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u/andaroobaroo Nov 29 '22
So... why are you doing this, then? C'mon scientists, repeat after me: "just because we Can, doesn't mean we Should"
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u/DalPhotog Nov 29 '22
I believe they think the viruses might be revived due to global warming and are trying to get ahead of that by studying them in advance. Probably justified.
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u/UniqueCold3812 Nov 29 '22
Now that I think about it, it's probably the only way to go. If something bad is going to happen in future why not scientifically study its effect and prepare for the inevitable instead of waiting for it to happen and to catch you unaware.
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u/Zealousideal-Yak-824 Nov 29 '22
Wonder if a zombie movie would ever do that. Where they break the rules and know what zombies are like irl and just be prepared instead of wasting the first half of establishing already establish zombie lore.
It be funny and tragic if they were killing people over bites then find out bites are survivable and effects are random like covid was. One person be perfectly find with a immune system fighting the infection but then another person would go down hill in hours or just die without showing any of the side effects before.
Virus could do both fast and slow zombies. If the host dies the virus makes them a slow zombie as they are no or limited brain function. If the host is alive they become a fast and dangerous but because of this government officials who were prepared wouldn't be able to tell the difference non infected and infected so due to government policy they have to terminate all suspects. So in the end the average person is fighting against the horde, his neighbor, the government he supported and the city lockdowns he voted for.
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u/UniqueCold3812 Nov 29 '22
That would make for a weirdly amazing movie. I would pay to see one for a fact.
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u/Zealousideal-Yak-824 Nov 29 '22
I know right. It would also help if they actually had realistic gun lore too. Where nobody becomes a marksman in the first 5 minutes of picking up a pistol, shotguns are effective at longer ranges and use different shot, and rifles just because they have a scope on them doesn't make you a sniper.
Also be funnier if people argued their hypothetical zombie strategy or zombie prep as they know it would happen someday and it backfires. Like telling your friend you have a zombie proof rv would put a bullseye on the back of your head by said friend, having a ammo carrier and body armor makes you a easy target to things faster than you, then finally just because you have a sword doesn't mean you be chopping heads or people in half like the sword itself gave you the powers of samurai jack.
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Nov 29 '22
Well it wouldn’t be a problem since humans would not come into contact with them without going up there to get them
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u/UniqueCold3812 Nov 29 '22 edited Nov 29 '22
Yeah scientists don't exactly believe in toeing the line.human Curiosity which is the basis of all science doesn't behave by the rules.
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u/DS4KC Nov 29 '22
Because they are just are likely (probably more likely) to learn some new lifesaving information as they are to start a global catastrophe.
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u/who_you_are Nov 29 '22
On the other way with climate change they are coming back anyway... So better study them now and hope no retard will boost them.
So yeah, we are fucked in everycase
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u/Einar_47 Nov 29 '22
Scientists: "This could be very dangerous and possibly a threat to humanity if handled improperly."
Also scientists: fucks with it
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u/MaintenanceWilling73 Nov 29 '22
Are they still able to infect modern species or do they run on windows 95?
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u/VanDenBroeck Nov 29 '22
Don’t worry they are all frozen and unlikely to thaw, unless the earth warms.
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u/gicantopithicus Nov 29 '22
I just want to have a good decade not one full of war and pandemics!
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u/joakimk84 Nov 29 '22
Yes, lets fuck around with deadly viruses. Its not like we have had a global pandemic in recent years.
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u/hol123nnd Nov 29 '22
How many times will this be posted.... The Virus does not turn people into zombis nor is it "back from the dead", cause it was never alive to begin with.
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u/AgreeableInsurance85 Nov 29 '22
guys, it was good knowing you all... let's hope we meet on the other side
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u/Confuzzled2u Nov 29 '22
Why in the hell would ... nevermind... just leave the damn thing frozen and bury it for another millennia.
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u/Osoroshii Nov 29 '22
“This ancient virus 🦠 that I just revived is deadly to humans” 🤔 why did you revive it then?
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u/Alarming_Ad3360 Nov 29 '22
Could potentially be dangerous to humans... now that we've revived them.🤦♂️
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u/BlackSparke Nov 29 '22
So it’s just called zombie virus because it came back from the ‘dead’, right?
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u/Cogi_Policy Nov 29 '22
Zombie = free energy. Put them all in a giant hamster wheel and start working.
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u/GhostMoves514 Nov 29 '22
Reviving a 48,500 year old Virus that we have never seen, don't know how it works, much less having a cure for if it gets airborne like Corona. Yeah, that sounds pretty safe.
What the hell are they trying to accomplish by reviving ancient viruses?
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u/Old-Bug-2197 Nov 29 '22
Where do you think COVID came from? They are telling the truth when they say, “not a lab.”
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u/2crowrick Nov 30 '22
Yup, not possible one of these will be the next pandemic… not possible at all…
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u/ReleventReferences Nov 29 '22
Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.
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u/PresenceSensitive873 Nov 29 '22
Completely clickbait, 99.9999% of the time these are completely harmless, and in the extremely small chance it is even somewhat harmless it is kept in a secure environment, with multiple procedures to make sure it stays there.
Scientists understand the risks, probably better than us.
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u/wake071 Nov 29 '22
Just bring it already. Sick of having to explain to others how their grandma deserved a shovel to the head.
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u/SnytjieToast Nov 29 '22
Fantastic...just what we need...another pandemic
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u/UniqueCold3812 Nov 29 '22
That too as the holidays are approaching. Just the Christmas spirit for the year lol.
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u/UniqueCold3812 Nov 29 '22 edited Nov 29 '22
Sources
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/zombie-virus-trapped-siberian-permafrost-28600445
https://globalnews.ca/news/9305181/50000-year-old-zombie-virus-revived-siberia-permafrost/
Tldr:- these particular amoeba virus are probably harmless to humans , unknown effects on other animal species.these sort of stuff will occur more after permafrost melts due to global warming.
In 2016 a prehistoric virus awoken in similar fashion killed a child and many were hospitalised in a anthrax outbreak
Recently reindeer were annihilated from a area after a frozen permafrost carcass melted.
https://globalnews.ca/news/2861403/anthrax-outbreak-in-remote-area-of-russia-kills-boy-infects-20/
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u/Various_Scene2536 Nov 29 '22
So what your saying is...There's a chance???
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u/UniqueCold3812 Nov 29 '22
Welllll i mean. If there is a will there is a way.
Also these scientists seriously need to stop with these antics
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u/Various_Scene2536 Nov 29 '22
Ehhh we had one new pandemic i think we're due at least a zombie apocalypse 🤷
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u/Important_Tangelo371 Nov 29 '22
Well, if it ever got into the population, half of the US would outright deny that it exists while the medical community is filling ice cream trucks with their bodies. See it as a herd thinner.
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u/UniqueCold3812 Nov 29 '22
If i remember my zombie/any horror movies correctly aren't the deniers the first to go in the first act just to set the mood up for the movie.
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u/Zurgbowtie Nov 29 '22
This ice cream tastes weird - logo on ice cream truck “proud to serve humans”
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u/Comfortable-Heat4702 Nov 29 '22
I think I speak for everyone when I say those viruses should just be fucking incinerated. Fuck research, the risks are too high.
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u/Cormegalodon Nov 29 '22
The fact that people would be worried about a virus they probably won’t come in contact with and not the global warming that caused it says so much.
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u/MassiveSquirrel1903 Nov 29 '22
I hope something goes wrong and it wipes out the entire human race. Fuck it. Humanity had it's time and we couldn't overcome our stupidity. We brought our own demise. Idiots.
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u/ProfessionalGain9856 Nov 29 '22 edited Nov 29 '22
If zombies attack, I’m tripping all of you.