28 prehistoric viruses unknown to science found in glacier

Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet Get our free Climate email Get our free Climate email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The glaciers were formed over a long period of time and had collected dust, gases, and viruses – the study’s lead author Zhi-Ping Zhong, a researcher at the Ohio State University’s Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, said. Co-author Matthew Sullivan, professor of microbiology at Ohio State, said that the method Mr Zhong used to “decontaminate the cores” to study the microbes and viruses could help them search for similar genetic sequences in “other extreme icy environments”, and places including “Mars, the moon, or closer to home in Earth’s Atacama Desert.” The viruses found are not harmful to humans as they were made inactive by the “chemistry of nucleic acids extraction”, he added. However, the study’s conclusion states that melting glaciers could eventually release viruses that might infect humans. “Such melting will not only lead to the loss of those ancient, archived microbes and viruses but also release them to the environments in the future.” The scientists’ study was published last month in the journal Microbiome.