sciencesourceimages: Trillions Upon Trillions of Viruses Fall From the Sky Each Day by Jim Robbins /

sciencesourceimages: Trillions Upon Trillions of Viruses Fall From the Sky Each Day by Jim Robbins / NY Times High in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Spain, an international team of researchers set out four buckets to gather a shower of viruses falling from the sky. Scientists have surmised there is a stream of viruses circling the planet, above the planet’s weather systems but below the level of airline travel. Very little is known about this realm, and that’s why the number of deposited viruses stunned the team in Spain. Each day, they calculated, some 800 million viruses cascade onto every square meter of the planet. See More Virus Photos Most of the globe-trotting viruses are swept into the air by sea spray, and lesser numbers arrive in dust storms. “Unimpeded by friction with the surface of the Earth, you can travel great distances, and so intercontinental travel is quite easy” for viruses, said Curtis Suttle, a marine virologist at the University of British Columbia. “It wouldn’t be unusual to find things swept up in Africa being deposited in North America.” The study by Dr. Suttle and his colleagues, published earlier this year in the International Society of Microbial Ecology Journal, was the first to count the number of viruses falling onto the planet. The research, though, is not designed to study influenza or other illnesses, but to get a better sense of the “virosphere,” the world of viruses on the planet. Read the entire article Image above © Biophoto Associates / Science Source -- source link

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