GLOBAL POST
By David Trifunov
03/04/2014
![]() |
Pithovirus sibericum |
This previously unknown virus — Pithovirus sibericum — is so large it’s viewable through a visible light microscope. It’s the largest ever discovered, BBC reported.
Don’t worry, they say, the resulting infection produced by the virus only affects one-celled amoebas … for now.
OK, that last part was dramatic license, but if you’ve watched any B-movie about aliens or diseases threatening life after eons unseen, you probably have to wonder why these intrepid intellectuals have taken such a drastic action.
![]() |
Aerial view of ruts from geological survey vehicles |
“The revival of such an ancestral amoeba infecting virus … suggests that the thawing of permafrost either from global warming or industrial exploitation of circumpolar regions might not be exempt from future threats to human or animal health,” lead researcher Jean-Michel Claverie wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Why this is making headlines across the globe is the unique nature of this new virus, The New York Times reported.
![]() |
Area where virus was exhumed |
While the common flu virus has 13 genes and measures 100 nanometers across, typical giant viruses are 1,000 times larger.
Can they infect humans? So far, giant viruses haven’t posed much threat.
What if, he said, an ancient version of small pox or some other dastardly disease is revived as we continue to exploit thawing permafrost?
“If it is true that these viruses survive in the same way those amoeba viruses survive, then smallpox is not eradicated from the planet — only the surface,” Calverie told BBC. “By going deeper we may reactivate the possibility that smallpox could become again a disease of humans in modern times.”
More from GlobalPost: Kepler telescope finds 715 new planets, a ‘bonanza’ for NASA