Giant virus alive again

A giant, harmless virus locked in the Siberian permafrost for more than 30,000 years was revived by French scientists.  They thawed the virus and watched it replicate in a culture in a petri dish, where it infected an amoeba, a single-cell organism. Called the Pithovirus sibericum, the virus has 500 genes compared to the influenza virus that has only 8. The scientific work has implications on public health risks “in connection with exploiting mineral or energy resources in Arctic Circle regions that are becoming more and more accessible through global warming, the French National Center for Scientific Research said in a statement.
 
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