this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2024
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Scientists have unearthed the remnants of more than 1,700 viruses from deep inside a glacier in western China. Most of these viruses are new to science.

With this discovery, the number of ancient viruses recovered from glaciers has grown fiftyfold.The viruses, gathered from a 1,000-foot ice core taken from the sprawling Guliya Glacier on the Tibetan Plateau, date back 41,000 years and span three major shifts from cold to warm.

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[–] expatriado 54 points 2 months ago

those only infect Windows 3.0 on i486

[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is one of those headlines that feels like it should be in the opening montage of a disaster movie.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

We've got the perfect global pandemic movie post-credits section.

  • Accelerating climate change and also the denial
  • Economic recession and increasing wealth gap
  • Myopic leadership both in government and corporate, rise of fascism
  • Misinformation campaigns, science and history denial becoming fashionable
  • Harambe

We're truly fucked.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Cool we were running out of new ones.

[–] allidoislietomyself 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

time to get reacqaaaaainted

[–] expatriado 6 points 2 months ago

new meaning to retrovirus

[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 months ago (2 children)

So they are "retro" viruses

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Bringing back the classics!

[–] wafflez 1 points 2 months ago

These viruses used to be so cool back in the day

[–] BigDaddySlim 27 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Hey how about we put those the fuck back where they were and just make pretend viruses in Plague Inc. We don't need to unleash the ancient virus that'll make us shit our own brains out

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Put them back? Have you seen glaciers recently? They somehow don't like to stay frozen

[–] BigDaddySlim 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Good point, launch the frozen demon core into the sun

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Its just, that it would melt before going into outer space ..

[–] jaggedrobotpubes 25 points 2 months ago

It's cool covid prepped us to do nothing, lose, and declare victory between coughs. We got this 💪

[–] unreachable 14 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The optimist in me wants to think that maybe one of those viruses can be used to cure some other diseases via genetic modification.

The pessimistic part of me wonders if this will be the start of a pandemic cycle that never ends until most people are dead.

I want it to be the first one please.

[–] SendMePhotos 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The world could use the second one.... I also want to live and I don't want people to die but the earth could use less humans.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

As we saw with the COVID pandemic, even in "1st world countries", poorer people were disproportionately affected. Fewer humans won't help when the majority of harm to the Earth is perpetuated by a small fraction who would be disproportionately represented in a world where the majority of people died.

I sympathise with your sentiment, because it often does feel like humans are the problem, but the reality is that we're not. Although it can feel weirdly comforting to think of humans as inherently and innately destructive, thinking this way is a pipeline to eco-fascism, which doesn't offer productive ways forward.

[–] SendMePhotos 1 points 2 months ago

This is non factual but I felt that most people who didn't get a vaccine were rejecting it by choice.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Ancient viruses?! We’re all gonna die!

Tap for spoilerMost viruses are completely harmless to humans. There are millions of species, of which only a few hundred are medically significant. I doubt these frozen viruses will have any noticeable impact on anything.

[–] JustZ 7 points 2 months ago

True, but all it takes is one.

[–] Jimbabwe 11 points 2 months ago

The fun is just starting. Only a matter of time until the glaciers melt even more and release untold hell upon us!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oooh oooh! I remember this X Files episode!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Great episode. Also, the movie The Thaw.

[–] MonsterMonster 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So that Zombie apocalypse could still happen.

[–] Zdvarko 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Just remember the 33 rules of zombie survival

[–] Gremour 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] Mediocre_Bard 6 points 2 months ago

I looked up zombie apocalypse rule 34. I am very excited for this zombie apocalypse to get started.

[–] Kintarian 8 points 2 months ago

So, the Andromeda Strain was a documentary?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

There's a voice inside me that says, "Do it."

[–] JustZ 1 points 2 months ago

Bring lemonade.

[–] NocturnalMorning 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Can't wait for us to figure out one of them is still virulent, and it's out in the world now being passed around.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Well, they were discovered in China, so it won’t take long, but they won’t tell anyone until it’s been spread to other countries.

[–] aeronmelon 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

For the love of god, DON’T!

[–] trxxruraxvr 5 points 2 months ago

There is no god, so I'll just go ahead then.

[–] PorradaVFR 5 points 2 months ago

Leave. Them. Alone.

I mean …

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

So, when do we start building robots to preserve humanity?