Frozen viruses 🦠 and climate change. Scientists recently obtained ice 🧊 cores from the glaciers on the northwestern Tibetan Plateau. Ice core samples can be obtained by drilling into the ice and removing a long segment that can be used for analysis. . Ice core samples are crucial for understanding the correlation between carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and the overall global temperatures tens of thousands of years ago. . Recent findings from thawing Siberian permafrost have shown that giant ancient viruses 🦠 once lived there. Therefore, for this study, the scientists analyzed the cores for biological life. In the paper released, they mention the discovery of 33 different types of viruses and 28 new ones. . The recent overall trend in global warming and climate 🌥 change suggests that understanding these ancient viruses maybe crucial for developing vaccines if they become infectious to humans as more of them thaw. . Science article: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.03.894675v1.full . Credit: IGS CNRS/AMU, NASA Earth Observatory / public domain, Steven Profaizer, National Science Foundation / public domain, CSIRO / CC BY-SA 3.0 and ABooher / public domain. . #viruses #giantviruses #icecore #icecoresamples #glaciers #tibet #permafrost #virology #globalwarming https://www.instagram.com/p/B7oaj1TJqa6/?igshid=1hm9n0wlm3hxe
