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CrowdScience: Could a ‘zombie’ virus kill us all?

Discussion & Talk

Could a ‘Zombie’ Virus Kill us All?

08/02/2019 GMT

Could a ‘zombie’ virus kill us all?

BBC World Service - CrowdScience, Could a ‘zombie’ virus kill us all?

Might ancient ice from the Antarctic depths contain deadly viruses?

It’s the sort of plot you would expect from a classic sci-fi movie; what if there are viruses trapped deep in Antarctic ice that could wreak havoc on humans? 

Crowdscience presenter Alex Lathbridge puts on warm gloves and meets the scientists venturing into the icy wilds. He wants to answer listener Tony’s question - can viral life exist in such inhospitable climes and if so, might it pose us a danger? 

Alex meets teams who venture to the Antarctic to find out about how their work to understand climate change leads them to drilling and analysing ice cores that are tens of thousands of years old. He then visits a dynamic husband and wife duo in France who are extracting viruses from 30,000 year old Siberian permafrost and bringing them back to life. He discovers that - rather than killing us all, - their findings of novel giant viruses might contribute to medicine and our understanding of evolution.

(Photo: Scientists working in a laboratory.  Credit: Getty Images)

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