15,000 year old viruses found in Tibet glacier looking good

[Robert Zwilling]

The viruses survived because of the ice not because they were frozen. Half the viruses were adapted to living in a frozen environment. Their genes made them at home in a frozen environment, which makes them extremophiles. Of the 33 different viruses found, only 4 had been detected before. Those 4 typically infect bacteria. Due to the difficulty of keeping the research free of contamination and handling there have been only 2 other studies of ancient virus in old ice. There has been much research done on microbial life discovered on the surface of melting ancient ice. Algae growing on top of glaciers actually accelerates the melting process making a microbial soup of great diversification but hard to sort out time wise. The methods developed to study the microbes in the old ice cores can also be used to look for life or signs of past life on Mars and the Moon. There was no mention in the article of bringing them back to life. Anthrax found in melting surface ice comes back to life automatically and has infected people who come into contact with it.
15,000 year old viruses trapped inside glaciers