Recently, U.S. scientists who studied the sea near the famous Bermuda Triangle, have found another ' anomaly '. They found that surface waters in this area is literally teeming with a wide variety of crawling with viruses. However, for the person they do not pose any danger - they are only interested in oceanic bacteria.
The very phrase ' Bermuda Triangle ' has very recently - he invented a fan of spiritualism and esoteric Vincent Gaddis in a 1964. Under this toponym he was referring to an area located between the island of Puerto Rico, the Florida coast and Bermuda. According to a famous mystic of the last century, this part of the Atlantic gained notoriety due to the fact that it disappeared hundreds of ships and aircraft. Some of the court, it is true, then there were, but without the crew and passengers.
All this made Gaddis suggests that in this area is an anomaly. True, he was not the first who expressed a similar idea - back in 1950 And American journalist. Jones wrote an article about the mysterious disappearance of ships in the region (which he calls simply and tastefully - Sea Devil ). However, this popularity has gained the Bermuda Triangle in 1974, when a popularizer of science, Charles Berlitz published a book of the same name, which were collected by various descriptions of mysterious disappearances in the area. The book immediately became a bestseller, and as a result of the mysterious and dangerous sea devil knew the whole world. After that, different groups of scientists have been looking for reasons to explain all of these species.
However, as time went on, and the skeptics had the upper hand over sly mystery lovers. There were no anomalies in this area of the ocean were found, and the U.S. Coast Guard has published several reports according to which the disappearance of ships in the Bermuda Triangle occurred no more frequently than in other areas of the oceans, and they occur mainly due to storms. Historians, digging in the archives, found that the area since the discovery of America was very often visit various courts, including piracy, until the second half of XX century, one of the sailors did not mention him as a mysterious place where the ships are constantly dying. Muckraking journalists analyzing the Berlitz book, and found that most of the facts presented, this writer is not quite true, and some just invented.
Thus, by the 90- th years of last century, interest in the Bermuda Triangle is largely exhausted. However, scientists have recently re interested in this area as one abnormality found in it after all. However, the disappearance of ships and aircraft, it has nothing to do.
A team of U.S. scientists led by Professor Craig Carlson of the Bermuda Institute of Oceanology ( St. George, Bermuda) for ten years conducted oceanographic research in the northwestern part of the Sargasso Sea, just in that part of it, which is near the Bermuda Triangle and the Bermuda . A recent report on the work of biologists. Of particular interest in it was reported that, according to the observations of scientists, in the superficial layers of the ocean in this region, most numerous living organisms are viruses...!.
Interestingly, the dynamics of these microscopic organisms are directly connected with the seasons. For example, in the summer of active virus multiplied in the water layers at depths ranging from 60 to 100 meters, and their number amounted to ten million particles on a single drop of water. In the winter, sometimes they did not exist in the surface layers - they went to a depth behind their masters.
The researchers analyzed the DNA of viruses caught them and found that 90 percent of them have not been known to science. However, dangerous to humans among these microorganisms, both known and unknown, not at all - they all belong to a group of bacteriophages, ie, the objects of their attacks are bacteria living in the ocean. It is known that bacteriophage is very old-fashioned and conservative, do not change their habits, and on any other living creatures do not attack. But the bacteria on them have not sweet.
Bacteriophages in order to be able to reproduce, lie in wait for unsuspecting bacteria attached to their cell wall and enter into his victim's DNA. Furthermore, it integrates into the genome of the bacteria (which, as we recall, is a single circular DNA molecule, lying freely in the cytoplasm and is not protected by any shell ), makes him forget about their own responsibilities and focus on making all the necessary molecules for the assembly of new viruses. This assembly also takes place inside the bacterial cell. When the number of infants up to several millions of bacteriophages, they emerge from the host cell, effectively breaking it into pieces, then sent to the search for new victims.
Organic molecules of the same bacteria are dead in the water surrounding them, as well as at each time bacteriophages kill hundreds of thousands of cells, it is not surprising that the sea surface in this place turns into a nutrient broth. Taste it in a hurry other bacteria, which, in turn, is quickly becoming the prey of wily virus. It turns out that the bacteriophages themselves form a microscopic ecosystem in which they live.
Enjoy the fruits of their work in a hurry as other inhabitants of the sea, unicellular and multicellular organisms, plankton. Some were attracted by free nutrient broth, the other - his eating bacteria, and the concentration of microplankton is very good food for crustaceans and fish. That is, it appears that in the surface layers of the sea viruses pose a real ' dining room ', which tend to eat even whales and dolphins ( these, in turn, are interested in swarms of krill feeding on microplankton and eating krill, fish).
Scientists, in their confession, were amazed that opens their eyes a picture - about the role of viruses in the formation of ocean ecosystems, they do not even suspect. In general, according to many oceanographers are still oceanic viruses were very poorly understood - these little ones is not easy to catch. But now it is clear that in all the seas and oceans of their lives countless.
Genre: Documentary.
Year: 1998.
Description:.
Directed by: Robert Eagle (Robert Eagle).
About the film: Throughout human history, supernatural phenomena have always fascinated people believers and irritated skeptics. In the new film series ... In this part of the viewer learns a lot about the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle.
Issued: UK, BBC Worldwide.
Time: 00:51:10.
... They account for 95 percent of the total biomass of the ocean. That is, the mass of the virus, even more than the mass of krill, fish and larger animals such as whales, together. Given the rate of reproduction of viruses and their number becomes apparent how important their role in nutrient cycling on the planet ' - says one of the authors of the study of biological ' anomaly ' Bermuda Triangle Dr. Rachel Persons.
However, some experts believe that in this case about any anomalies, typical of this Bermuda triangle, not a speech - similar processes occur with viruses in many areas of the oceans. For example, biologists from the U.S. and Canada, investigated the surface waters of the North Atlantic, reported that the most diverse viral community ( 129 000 genotypes) were found off the coast of British Columbia. And the number of these microorganisms are also very high - about 50 million particles in a drop of water, which is five times greater than in the Bermuda Triangle. Such a ' rage virus ' because in this area is rising over the ocean ( upwelling ), rising to the surface nutrients from the depths of the ocean. In such places are always more sentient beings and their diversity is higher than in adjacent areas, and viruses are not an exception to this rule.
So it appears that the largest ' infected with HIV ' on our planet is just the oceans. It is fortunate that most of it found in the microscopic parasites are not dangerous to humans....
Discuss.
