Re: [asa] Researchers say melting glaciers might release ancient flu viruses

Surely this is a left-wing communist conspiracy designed to intimidate people into accepting the authority of atheist humanistic evolutionary scientists

Michael
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Pim van Meurs
  To: Janice Matchett
  Cc: asa@calvin.edu
  Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 6:47 PM
  Subject: Re: [asa] Researchers say melting glaciers might release ancient flu viruses

  Seems that some have not taken Augustine's warning too seriously. For those scientists and Christians interested in this story, I suggest the following research article and determine what the researchers found. And then you can 'judge for yourself'...

   Gang Zhang, Dany Shoham, David Gilichinsky, Sergei Davydov, John D. Castello, and Scott O. Rogers Evidence of Influenza A Virus RNA in Siberian Lake Ice J. Virol. 2006 80: 12229-12235. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

  Influenza A virus infects a large proportion of the human population annually, sometimes leading to the deaths of millions. The biotic cycles of infection are well characterized in the literature, including in studies of populations of humans, poultry, swine, and migratory waterfowl. However, there are few studies of abiotic reservoirs for this virus. Here, we report the preservation of influenza A virus genes in ice and water from high-latitude lakes that are visited by large numbers of migratory birds. The lakes are along the migratory flight paths of birds flying into Asia, North America, Europe, and Africa. The data suggest that influenza A virus, deposited as the birds begin their autumn migration, can be preserved in lake ice. As birds return in the spring, the ice melts, releasing the viruses. Therefore, temporal gene flow is facilitated between the viruses shed during the previous year and the viruses newly acquired by birds during winter months spent in the south. Above the Arctic Circle, the cycles of entrapment in the ice and release by melting can be variable in length, because some ice persists for several years, decades, or longer. This type of temporal gene flow might be a feature common to viruses that can survive entrapment in environmental ice and snow.

  On Nov 29, 2006, at 10:13 AM, Janice Matchett wrote:

    Falling into the "What can we do to scare the pants off the idiots again today", category, we have this offering:
     
    Researchers say melting glaciers might release ancient flu viruses
     November 29, 2006 | Jason Gale
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1745845/posts

    ~ Janice .... quoting H. L. Mencken:

    "The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots."

    "The urge to save humanity is nearly always a cover for the urge to rule."

    "The whole aim of practical [p------s] is to keep the populace alarmed - and hence clamorous to be led to safety - by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Wed Nov 29 15:25:18 2006