[_ Old Earth _] Barbarian - What could POSSIBLY go wrong here?

[Pizza]

(I address Barbarian, because you've GOT to believe the earth is more than 6,000 years old for this to mean anything to you.)

http://io9.com/scientists-just-revived-a-30-000-year-old-frozen-virus-1535445520

In what's either the beginning of a Michael Crichton movie or a scientific breakthrough, researchers have successfully revived a 30,000-year-old virus buried deep in the permafrosts of Siberia, the largest virus ever discovered.


The virus, known as Pithovirus sibericum, was revived from samples from ancient permafrost, which the researchers used to infect amoebas in their lab. Fortunately, they say that the virus is not infectious to animals or humans. Which is good, because in addition to being large, it is also apparently incredibly tough...

 

[TOG]

(I address Barbarian, because you've GOT to believe the earth is more than 6,000 years old for this to mean anything to you.)

http://io9.com/scientists-just-revived-a-30-000-year-old-frozen-virus-1535445520

In what's either the beginning of a Michael Crichton movie or a scientific breakthrough, researchers have successfully revived a 30,000-year-old virus buried deep in the permafrosts of Siberia, the largest virus ever discovered.

If I remember correctly, Jurrasic Park didn't end too well. They say this virus can't infect humans, but they've said that about other viruses as well, and they have ended up infecting humans. Besides, it doesn't have to infect humans to cause a lot of damage. If it infects our food sources it could cause a serious famine. Let's hope it doesn't get released into the wild.

The TOG​

 

[Pizza]

While Jurrasic Park is a movie and I do NOT get my science from movies (and I know that was sarcasm and not science) - I agree 100% with the rest of your post.
I have the idea that Barbarian will agree as well.

 

[Barbarian]

In general, viruses will slowly adapt to other, similar organisms. So it's pretty unlikely that this one will go from amoebae to humans. It's possible, but the history of viral infections shows that it goes from some mammalian species to humans.