Researchers have discovered the largest virus ever, and
they've given it a terrifying name: Pandoravirus.
In mythology, opening Pandora's Box released evil into the
world. But there's no need to panic. This new family of virus lives underwater
and doesn't pose a major threat to human health.
"This is not going to cause any kind of widespread and
acute illness or epidemic or anything," says Eugene Koonin, an
evolutionary biologist at the National Institutes of Health who specializes in
viruses.
Instead, the Pandoravirus opens up a host of questions about
the origins of life on Earth, according to its discoverer, Jean-Michel Claverie
of Aix-Marseille University in France. He says, "We believe that those new
Pandoraviruses have emerged from a new ancestral cellular type that no longer
exists."