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View Full Version : The Infected Air (NSFH [Not Safe For Hypochondriacs])


Teh One Who Knocks
10-02-2012, 10:58 AM
Ben Goldacre - Discover Magazine


http://i.imgur.com/uhi4f.jpg

As I was putting together a talk today about our microbial world, I just came across this interesting paper in the August issue of The Journal of Virology.

A team of Korean scientists set up some traps to catch viruses and bacteria floating in the air. They set up their traps in Seoul, in an industrial complex in western Korea, and in a forest. Based on their collection, they came up with the following estimates…

**In each cubic meter of air, there are between 1.6 million and 40 million viruses.

**In each cubic meter of air, there are between 860,000 and 11 million bacteria.

Given that we breathe roughly .01 cubic meters of air each minute, a simple calculation based on these results suggests we breathe in a few hundred thousand viruses every minute.

Half of the viruses the scientists trapped didn’t match any known virus species. But most belong to groups that infect plants or mammals.

A note to hypochondriacs: holding your breathe may keep viruses from coming into your body, but as a lifestyle choice, it has some drawbacks.
FBD
10-02-2012, 11:32 AM
I'd be curious to see the electromagnetic properties mapped out
DemonGeminiX
10-02-2012, 12:32 PM
1. This is why we have an immune system.
2. This is also why any alien invasion would end just as quickly as it began.
Acid Trip
10-02-2012, 01:29 PM
1. This is why we have an immune system.
2. This is also why any alien invasion would end just as quickly as it began.

You think a species that has mastered space travel would be ignorant to bacteria and viruses? I find that very doubtful.
DemonGeminiX
10-02-2012, 01:40 PM
You think a species that has mastered space travel would be ignorant to bacteria and viruses? I find that very doubtful.

You think bacteria and virii evolve the same way everywhere in the universe? I find that very doubtful.
Acid Trip
10-02-2012, 02:25 PM
You think bacteria and virii evolve the same way everywhere in the universe? I find that very doubtful.

It has nothing to do with how they evolve. I'm saying that we can completely sterilize ourselves and put on protective gear to stay that way. Anyone traveling light years through space would have already figured out how to do the same.
DemonGeminiX
10-02-2012, 02:29 PM
It has nothing to do with how they evolve. I'm saying that we can completely sterilize ourselves and put on protective gear to stay that way. Anyone traveling light years through space would have already figured out how to do the same.

Protective gear can be breached. And in a hypothetical invasion scenario, you better believe that we'd do our best to rip them and their protective gear to shreds. They won't remain sterile for very long.
Acid Trip
10-02-2012, 02:35 PM
Protective gear can be breached. And in a hypothetical invasion scenario, you better believe that we'd do our best to rip them and their protective gear to shreds. They won't remain sterile for very long.

Or they could just infect our planet from afar with their favorite biological agents and we'd never have the opportunity to fight back. Hard to rip the protective gear off someone when you're already dead.

You act like coming to this planet would be a death sentence to the intellectually superior species that traveled here.
DemonGeminiX
10-02-2012, 02:37 PM
:-k

Sometimes I wonder if you argue just for the sake of arguing.
Acid Trip
10-02-2012, 02:38 PM
Or maybe you just hate being wrong when I argue with you? :nana:
DemonGeminiX
10-02-2012, 02:43 PM
:-k

But I'm not wrong.
FBD
10-02-2012, 02:51 PM
You think bacteria and virii evolve the same way everywhere in the universe? I find that very doubtful.

similar building blocks, similar mechanisms...similar preventions...while they may not necessarily be immune, they'd probably have a decently advanced response mechanism.
PorkChopSandwiches
10-02-2012, 06:35 PM
the alien invasion story was better then the OP