30,000-year-old virus comes back to life

[Kain]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/health/2014/03/05/10/04/scientists-resurrect-30000-year-old-virus

Makes you wonder what else has been hidden out there.

[RavynousHunter]

Quick question, but how do you "resurrect" a virus if its never been a living organism in the first place?

[Ironchew]

Quick question, but how do you "resurrect" a virus if its never been a living organism in the first place?

"Life" and "living material" are not well-defined terms. Viruses occupy that semantical grey area.

[Ultimate Paragon]

Quick question, but how do you "resurrect" a virus if its never been a living organism in the first place?

"Life" and "living material" are not well-defined terms. Viruses occupy that semantical grey area.

Exactly.  There's some debate as to whether viruses should be considered "alive" or not.

[SpaceProg]

Viruses: Living beings? Just bits of bad code?  The world may never know (or decide).

[Askold]

"FOOLISH MORTALS, YOU SHOULD HAVE NOT AWAKENED ME! AFTER THIRTY THOUSAND YEARS OF SLUMBER I NOW RISE TO AGAIN SLAY THE LIVING!"


Any bets on when we will lose contact with the researchers involved in this case?

[Cerim Treascair]

... really? No one's going to do it? fine...

"Ahhhh! After 30,000 years, I'm free! It's time to conquer... EARTH!"

[The Illusive Man]

Viril are classified as nonliving, this is supposed to be common knowledge.

[Sigmaleph]

a) It's "viruses". I have no idea why people are always weird about pluralizing "virus".
b) Generally, yes, but there is some debate on the matter. "Life" is a blurry classification.

[The Illusive Man]

a) It's "viruses". I have no idea why people are always weird about pluralizing "virus".

Internet cultural affects linguistics in very interesting ways. You have discovered what is known as a nonstandard plural. My favorite is the plural of box, boxen, as per the context of computer hardware.

b) Generally, yes, but there is some debate on the matter. "Life" is a blurry classification.

That debate is one of the most willfully stupid issues I have ever encountered. A virus lacks any metabolic processes, cannot synthesize proteins by itself and do not have organelles.

[Askold]

b) Generally, yes, but there is some debate on the matter. "Life" is a blurry classification.

That debate is one of the most willfully stupid issues I have ever encountered. A virus lacks any metabolic processes, cannot synthesize proteins by itself and do not have organelles.

But it can reproduce. The thing is that when a virus, or a virion, is not inside a host it is completely dormant. Essentially in a "dead" state. But when a virus enters a host it becomes active, it reacts to its surroundings it hijacks the host to begin replicating itself.

So if that virion had been dormant for 30'000 years and then the researchers began to study it and introduced it into something to see its reproduction process then you could say that it was brought back to "life."

[The Illusive Man]

But it can reproduce.

Infected cell =/= virus, they are two separate entities. A virus by itself cannot cause the synthesis of proteins and nucleic acid strands.

The thing is that when a virus, or a virion, is not inside a host it is completely dormant. Essentially in a "dead" state. But when a virus enters a host it becomes active, it reacts to its surroundings it hijacks the host to begin replicating itself.

A virus has no means of locomotion as it lacks any form of metabolic process. Spread and mutation are entirely reliant upon external environmental factors. This includes the development and mutation of capsids, the delivery method of nucleic acid strands.

So if that virion had been dormant for 30'000 years and then the researchers began to study it and introduced it into something to see its reproduction process then you could say that it was brought back to "life."

Please stop abusing those terms. To study virion infection the researchers had to find external cells with membranes susceptible to specific virion glycoproteins. To study virion itself researchers employ electronmicroscopy.