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Science & Technology

Millions of viruses are raining down every day

By T.K. Randall
February 7, 2018 · Comment icon 10 comments

Viruses can easily be transported between continents. Image Credit: NASA / Paul A. Newman
A new study has revealed that large numbers of viruses may be falling from the sky on a daily basis.
The research, which was conducted by a team of scientists from Spain, Canada and the US, aimed to find out how near-identical viruses managed to keep turning up on opposite sides of the planet.

By taking samples from high up in Spain's Sierra Nevada Mountains, they discovered that billions of viruses and tens of millions of bacteria were being swept up in to the planet's atmosphere, carried across vast distances and then deposited again on a regular basis.
"Every day, more than 800 million viruses are deposited per square meter above the planetary boundary layer - that's 25 viruses for each person in Canada," said virologist Curtis Suttle.

"Roughly 20 years ago we began finding genetically similar viruses occurring in very different environments around the globe."

"This preponderance of long-residence viruses travelling the atmosphere likely explains why - it's quite conceivable to have a virus swept up into the atmosphere on one continent and deposited on another."

Source: Phys.org | Comments (10)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #1 Posted by DanteHoratio 7 years ago
Kind of scary in a way.
Comment icon #2 Posted by Farmer77 7 years ago
Um what?   
Comment icon #3 Posted by Orphalesion 7 years ago
Meh, not really. Since it's happening all the time since the dawn of time and we haven't gone extinct from some sky virus yet, shows that it's pretty harmless.
Comment icon #4 Posted by XenoFish 7 years ago
Now we have another explanation for a global zombie apocalypse.
Comment icon #5 Posted by ChaosRose 7 years ago
Kind of scary how bad the flu is this year. There are a fair number of hospitals who are treating patients in tents due to the overflow of patients. 
Comment icon #6 Posted by XenoFish 7 years ago
Everyone around me has had it. I got a cough that lasted a week and I was fine.
Comment icon #7 Posted by DanteHoratio 7 years ago
That is true. So far.
Comment icon #8 Posted by paperdyer 7 years ago
Maybe viruses that cause non-cancerous mutations could be the whole key to evolution.
Comment icon #9 Posted by Sundew 7 years ago
Considering the speed of the jet stream, it would only take a virus a few days to cross an ocean. 
Comment icon #10 Posted by Socio 7 years ago
Hmm? Perhaps that conspiracy theory that pharmaceutical companies are using chem trails to spread virus's in order to drive their multi-billion dollar market might no be so far fetched.


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