HEALTH
‘Zombie’ viruses revived from Siberian permafrost
WORDS JOANNA THOMPSON
GLOBAL EYE
Showcasing the incredible world we live in
There’s a frozen soup of viruses, bacteria and fungal spores lurking beneath the frigid Arctic soil. Unlike the icy leftovers in the back of your freezer, some of these microbes haven’t interacted with a cell since well before ancient Egyptians built the Pyramids of Giza. As climate change continues to cook the planet, however, these permafrost-locked germs are beginning to thaw. But can newly defrosted microbes ‘wake up’ and infect anything? And how much of a potential threat do they pose to human and environmental health? Those are the questions an international team of scientists began to probe in a recent study.