There’s an intact ancient virus lying dormant in human DNA – ScienceAlert

Research has shown that our DNA houses the ghosts of viruses fended off by your ancestors, and some of those viruses could still be dangerous if they wake up. And now scientists just found more of them.

After surveying 2,500 human genomes, a team discovered evidence of 36 different viruses that had accumulated in there over the course of our evolution, including 19 that had never been found before, and one that might still be infectious if it was turned on.

Source: There’s an intact ancient virus lying dormant in human DNA – ScienceAlert