The real threat of climate warming, viruses and bacteria hidden in permafrost are recovering. ...

Some terrorist viruses that we thought have been completely eliminated still exist in the world, waiting to be awakened.

Smallpox is a malignant infectious disease, which has bred countless tragedies in human history. Known as "the greatest genocide in human history."

From 1967, the last large-scale smallpox eradication campaign was carried out on a global scale, which ended with 1977, when the last patient in Somalia in Africa recovered.

1979101On October 26th, the United Nations World Health Organization announced that smallpox virus had been eradicated worldwide.

The only remaining samples of smallpox virus are kept in two research centers in the United States and Russia for research.

However, from 65438 to 2009, a large-scale smallpox epidemic broke out in Siberia in the 1990s. At that time, people hastily buried the body of the deceased by the river.

These smallpox viruses are preserved in the permafrost on the Siberian tundra, just like the cold storage in the university laboratory. Now, the warming climate has begun to gradually melt the permafrost.

variola virus

Man is good at fighting against all creatures that threaten his survival.

Sharp spears and shields were invented in ancient times to resist fierce beasts and be invincible.

A century ago, the invention of penicillin began, which opened the prelude to the fierce battle between human beings and germs.

Subsequently, bacteria continued to evolve, and antibiotics developed by humans were constantly updated.

I thought it was an updated racing competition, but suddenly I looked back and found that pathogens and viruses thousands of years ago were making a comeback, and the momentum was even more fierce.

Penicillin was extracted for the first time in alexander fleming.

Some terrible germs have begun to wake up quietly, threatening mankind.

August 20 16, an ancient pathogen appeared on the vast Siberian tundra.

A 12-year-old boy living in the Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic Circle of the tundra died of anthrax, which caused at least 20 local people to be hospitalized.

How can anthrax, which is easily infected by herbivores, suddenly appear in the pure Arctic? Moreover, this pathogen is very different from modern anthrax in morphology.

This matter was studied by scientists at that time. After investigating the epidemic and finding out the truth, the reason was very surprising.

194 1 The body of a reindeer who died of anthrax in was originally buried under permafrost, and everyone thought that the body would be permanently frozen.

However, with the emergence of summer heat wave in global warming climate, frozen soil is not "permanent" as literally said, and it begins to melt.

This exposed the reindeer carcasses, and Bacillus anthracis reappeared and was released into the nearby water and soil after resurrection.

This pathogen infected reindeer grazing nearby, resulting in the death of more than 2,000 reindeer.

There are about 300,000 reindeer in the Yamal Peninsula where the epidemic broke out. At that time, the Russian government even prepared to kill five-sixths of reindeer on the peninsula to ensure the epidemic control.

With the flow of the food chain, it is difficult for people at the top of the food chain to escape, and nearly 100 people seek medical treatment.

Permafrost, also known as permafrost, has a confusing name. In fact, it refers to the earth-rock layer that has been frozen for many years, not the ice layer that will never melt.

The permafrost in the Arctic is divided into two layers. The upper permafrost, about 50 cm, melts every summer and freezes in winter, while the lower permafrost freezes all the year round. The annual average low temperature in some areas within 100 meters reaches -5 ~-3℃.

In most cases, the content of water molecules in frozen soil will exceed the potential water saturation of surface materials, so it is usually in the form of freezing and thawing of ice and soil.

However, with the increase of temperature or strong pressure, the ice in frozen soil will melt into water and change its solid state, and deeper frozen soil is gradually emerging.

Burying is the most convenient and commonly used way to dispose of corpses in ancient times.

After death, people may also transport the body back to their hometown and choose a beautiful place for burial.

On the other hand, animals are not treated so well. Their bodies were either abandoned in the wilderness, or someone moved into compassion and buried them on the spot.

Generally speaking, viruses and bacteria in animals will die with the death of their hosts, but frozen soil is a "fresh storage" for some germs.

Bacteria such as Bacillus anthracis will form spores in the later stage of growth and development, and there is an extremely hard spore on its surface.

Under the protection of this spore, bacteria can hibernate in the permafrost with low temperature, no oxygen, darkness and no water for centuries.

It has long been pointed out that the activity of anthrax spores in shallow frozen soil can be maintained for 105 years, and with the increase of buried depth, bacteria can sleep for a longer time.

Colletotrichum gloeosporioides and thalli

At the beginning of the 20th century, more than one million reindeer died of anthrax all over the world.

At that time, most of their bodies were buried on the surface, mainly scattered in northern Russia.

In recent years, the temperature in the Arctic Circle, which is most affected by global warming, has risen rapidly, three times faster than that in other parts of the world.

Hibernating bacteria wake up in a warm "call" and then quickly find a new host according to their infectious characteristics to realize "resurrection"

However, this is not an isolated case of archaea resurrecting for the first time.

In the 1990s, virologists and biotechnologists in Novosibirsk, Russia, accidentally found DNA fragments of smallpox and the Black Death virus that they had been infected with in several human remains of the Stone Age.

Although the virus itself has not been found, under the conditions suitable for survival, pathogens may spread through infectious media.

As early as 2005, scientists from NASA discovered the resurrection of Botox, which had been frozen for 32,000 years.

That was when mammoths lived on the earth, and mammoths were not so lucky to be resurrected.

The principle of their resurrection is similar to that of Bacillus anthracis, and they also produce hard spores to survive.

Once resurrected, they are also horribly contagious.

huge

Arctic permafrost is rich in natural gas, precious metals, oil and other precious resources. In recent years, many countries have started this idea.

To exploit or exploit oil, a large amount of frozen soil needs to be moved, and the amount of movement is at least one million tons.

Therefore, in addition to the bacteria revival caused by the melting of frozen soil due to the rising temperature, commercial activities such as mining in the Arctic region will also seriously damage the frozen soil structure, thus reviving the ancient viruses hidden in it.

If this measure is implemented, its destructive power will be far greater than the impact of global warming.

China's Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is also rich in frozen soil resources.

However, with the interference of human activities such as human development and utilization in the past 50 years, the frozen soil environment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has also been greatly affected.

Engineering activities such as surface excavation and random sampling will disturb the dynamic balance mechanism of water-heat-ice in original frozen soil and accelerate the change of soil temperature.

According to statistics, during the period of 1980- 1995, the shallow ground temperature of frozen soil with a depth of less than 20 meters generally increased, and the frozen soil with a thickness of more than 10 meters became thinner or disappeared.

Frozen soil resources in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

In fact, the development of human microbial control technology has been relatively advanced and perfect, but the viruses and bacteria in ancient centuries can still shock us.

This is because the prevention and control technology developed today is mainly aimed at new pathogenic bacteria, which has completely changed compared with their ancestors.

Therefore, in the face of ancient germs, even if human beings are fully armed and equipped with elite weapons, there is no place to live. If the countermeasures against them are not formulated in time, they can only surrender.

Vaccine is a great milestone invention in human history to fight against germs.

Smallpox virus, which has threatened mankind for hundreds of years, has been completely prevented and controlled by vaccination with vaccinia vaccine.

In the process of vaccine development for more than 200 years, its defense effectiveness has been constantly updated and improved. However, due to the poor medical conditions in the early years, many vaccines were only used for the control and prevention of specific diseases and were not well preserved.

With the revival of archaea, the importance and urgency of maintaining vaccine stocks can be seen.

At the same time, the detection and monitoring of DNA content in frozen soil is also an important measure to prevent bacterial resuscitation.

Only by finding the signs of evil in a targeted way can we carry out subsequent prevention and protection more effectively.

Although the existence of virus bank in frozen soil and the resurrection of archaea will seriously threaten the survival of human beings, from another perspective, the strong viability and dormancy of microorganisms on earth are really amazing.

Researchers from the College of Microbiology and Cytology of the University of Florida in the United States extracted a kind of bacteria belonging to the genus Carnivora and other bacteria from a frozen soil in Siberia, Russia, with a depth of 12~20 meters.

Scientists cultivate bacteria at room temperature and then use them to test the Martian environment, such as lack of oxygen, extremely low temperature and low pressure.

The results showed that 6 out of 10000 bacterial samples could survive in this extreme environment after 30 days of culture, and all the bacteria that survived were Carnivora.

This discovery has taken an important step forward in the process of exploring life on Mars.

Aircraft exploring the Martian environment

Although alien research is very important, we must guard against a large number of bacteria and viruses buried under permafrost.

Otherwise, before we boarded Noah's Ark, which immigrated to Mars, the human beings on the earth would be in danger.