We could potentially see more of these revived, dangerous outbreaks as permafrost thaws with rising temperatures — bringing frozen bacteria and viruses back to life, scientists warn.
That is why a group of researchers from Denmark and Canada will now investigate how we can best monitor the bacteria.
They also want to develop an alarm system that can intervene if diseases come to life again after a deep hibernation under the ice.
Inspired by India
The researchers are inspired by an earlier project in India, where a system was developed to detect and monitor bacteria in polluted Indian soil.
This says associate professor Roana de Oliveira Hansen of the Southern Danish University, who is involved in the research collaboration.
‘One of the technologies we are considering is spectrophotometric analysis,’ she says Science in Picturesand she explains that several other technologies are currently on the drawing board as well.
Spectrophotometry can be used to measure how much light water absorbs. Scientists will then be able to monitor the development of the bacteria by measuring the absorption of light with the spectrophotometer, explains Roana de Oliveira Hansen.
Dangerous diseases and gold mines
A 2018 report from NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory speculated that “diseases like Spanish flu, smallpox and plague, now eradicated, are still frozen in the permafrost.”
In a French project from 2014, ancient viruses were also studied. The researchers managed to heat up a 30,000-year-old virus they found in permafrost – bringing it back to life.
According to Roana de Oliveira Hansen, the permafrost can harbor deadly diseases, but also potential medical gold mines:
“A lot of scientists have analyzed permafrost samples, and they’ve found lots of different microbes,” she says.
‘Some microbes can be dangerous, but others may be beneficial because they can be used for new types of antibiotics and other medicines, for example.’
For the researchers, the first step is to identify which bacteria they want to monitor and determine which technologies are most suitable for this.
If everything goes according to plan, the project will start in 2024.