Viral Fossil Brought Back To Life

hey hey hey writes "In a controversial study, researchers have resurrected a retrovirus that infected our ancestors millions of years ago and now sits frozen in the human genome. Published online by Genome Research this week, the study may shed new light on the history of these genomic intruders, as well as their role in tumors. Although this particular virus, dubbed Phoenix, is a wimpy one, some argue that resuscitating any ancient virus is inherently risky and that the study should have undergone stricter reviews."

because thats what we really need...

[spagetti_code]

...a new (retro)virus.

I mean - I was just saying the other day to a friend, I haven't
seen a new virus in ages... just the same old ebola, HIV,
flu, H5N1, herpes... I mean YAWN. Where's the excitement in
those? /sarcasm

Way ahead of you

[megaditto]

Creating black holes for kicks? That's what they are about to do in 2008 using the Large Hadron Collider [wikipedia.org].

As a side note, tonight I am sleeping on the couch: got busted typoing a Google image search for 'Large Hadron Collider.'

not sure...

[User 956]

Wasn't this the plot of one of the Final Fantasy games?

I'm not sure, but I'm sure Mohinder Suresh would be interested in this information.

Relax...

[Anonymous Coward]

What could possibly go wrong?!

Re:HERVs: 8% of Human Genome

[Rob Carr]

I learned to ignore mathematical nonsense in popular fiction books.

Re:HERVs: 8% of Human Genome

[19thNervousBreakdown]

Hell yes! I removed all that crap and compiled my DNA with -O4 -funfold-proteins -march=ubermensch and now I can flip a VW bus with one hand and paint fences with my mind! w00t!

Human ROOT KIT!

[ManyLostPackets]

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/RootkitRevea ler.html [sysinternals.com] has a tool that can help flesh out all those registry and file system API discrepancies for further study.

Of course it's always safe to run AdAware[ http://www.lavasoft.com/ [lavasoft.com] ] and if you have the budget, purchase WebRoot[ http://www.webroot.com/ [webroot.com] ] for a fast, centralized cleaning in the enterprize environment.