July
11
/ 2022
The Earth’s glaciers are a storehouse for more than just water. They also contain a plethora of frozen microbes that came into existence thousands of years ago. Should the planet’s glaciers melt completely, as climate change models suggest many ultimately will, some of these flash-frozen microbes could spring back to life and escape into the air, water, and soil, possibly leading to the world’s next pandemic. The impact of these tiny invaders on established ecosystems and human beings would be unknown, and that is why scientists are doing their best to evaluate all potential scenarios, including those that might fall under the ‘worst case’ category—like one that has just been identified following a four-year study that was recently completed in
