A scientist whose work centers on thawing viruses he digs out of the permafrost has successfully thawed and revived a virus that is still infectious after 48,500 years. It’s not the first one he’s revived, either.

Like the scientists said to be doing gain-of-function research in other places in the world, he says he does this to head off any possible killer viruses that might accidentally thaw under global warming.

According to CNN, critics say “the reemergence of ancient microorganisms has the potential to change soil composition and vegetative growth, possibly further accelerating the effects of climate change. ‘We’re really unclear as to how these microbes are going to interact with the modern environment,’” Kimberley Miner, a climate scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California said. “It’s not really an experiment that I think any of us want to run.”

Miner added that the better option is to “try and halt the thaw, and the wider climate crisis, and keep these hazards entombed in the permafrost for good.”

SOURCE:

CNN March 8, 2023