Bury the worm back! Pandemic has awakened fear of science in people

Sergey Baimukhametov

In recent days, the world press has been filled with sensational reports about alleged evidence of the allegedly artificial, laboratory origin of the coronavirus. Against this background, the information, loudly submitted by our media, was lost - that Russian scientists revived the fossil worm.

“A sensation in the world of science. Russian scientists warmed and resurrected rotifers, which spent 24 thousand years in permafrost. We are talking about ancient worms - primitive, but incredibly tenacious. After years of freezing, they almost immediately started breeding".

No need to guess what kind of reaction this news caused on social networks. However, more on that later. Now - about the topical topic in these three years, the origin of the coronavirus.

They created a strain of coronavirus as a bacteriological weapon, or it arose spontaneously - in any case, a person was involved in what happened.

“In the hands of nature, viruses have become a very convenient tool for testing humanity for compliance with the centuries-old rules of the relationship between the micro and macrocosm. However, when these rules are violated, viruses "show their teeth" in response, warned the virologist academician Felix Ershov a year ago. - For centuries there has been a grinding of a person to viruses, and viruses to a person. The twentieth century saw an insane leap in scientific and technological civilization... The consumer society became the ideal. There was a danger of suppression, deformation and simplification of the personality, a decrease in intelligence ... A person who considers himself "the king of nature" began to behave extremely shortsightedly in relation to the surrounding kingdoms of animals and plants".

Professor Tom Jefferson from the University of Oxford also believes that the coronavirus is not at all "Chinese" and certainly not of laboratory origin, but has always existed, lurked, and came out as soon as favorable conditions arose for him: “These agents do not come from anywhere and do not leave. They are always there and appear when something provokes them to do so".

Scientists have not yet (hopefully, "yet") unraveled the mysteries of the coronavirus. That is, we still know little about the "plague of the 21st century". If we argue at our philistine level, then, indeed, what kind of infection can arise from thoughtless human activity? The giant islands of floating debris in the World Ocean immediately come to mind, the total area of which reaches half of the territory of Europe. Scientists estimate that there are more than 5 trillion tons of polymers. Plastic does not decompose, but breaks down into small particles, down to the molecular level. And it forms something like a suspension that is eaten by marine animals and fish, mistaking it for plankton...

Biologists from Tomsk University have discovered microplastics in the body of fish living in our Ob. “The presence of microplastics in them will make it possible to assess the scale of its transmission along the food chains”, - explains Julia Frank, head of the laboratory of industrial microbiology at the Biological Institute of TSU.

Who's in charge, who's at the top of the food chain? That's it. Experts from the University of Arizona have discovered micro- and nanoplastic particles in human organs.

Let's return to our worms, which spent 24 thousand years in the permafrost and which were revived by Russian scientists. And which, after centuries of freezing, almost immediately began to reproduce.

Social media responded immediately. And - unanimously.

"People have already joked - freeze it back, we haven't figured out the bat yet". "It's very scary... and what a nasty thing it can be... it will be worse than an unfortunate eaten bat". "Wouldn't bring us some kind of infection from which the dinosaurs became extinct".

Two years ago, we would not have paid much attention to this information. She would have caused only surprise: "Wow!" Perhaps even approval. Since it is accompanied by an optimistic comment: “It has become known that this type of worm can produce a certain defense mechanism. It is not excluded that the same principle can be used to protect against destruction of human tissue".

However, in June 2021, in the Third Year of Coronovirus, the reaction was unequivocal. Frightened.

I remember a poem written in 1968 by Yuri Kuznetsov "The Atomic Tale". About our national hero.

I heard this happy fairy tale

I'm already in the present way,

How Ivanushka went out into the field

And he fired an arrow at random.

He went in the direction of flight

On the silvery trail of fate.

And he got to the frog in the swamp,

Three seas from the father's hut.

- Useful for a just cause! -

He put the frog in a handkerchief.

He opened her white royal body

And he started up the electric current.

She was dying in long agony,

Centuries were pounding in every vein.

And the smile of knowledge played

On the happy face of a fool.

But you can't do anything. Human curiosity is unstoppable. Moreover, scientific. Humanity owes all troubles and all achievements to curiosity leading to discoveries in science. Both conventional and unconditional "fools" cannot be ruled out in this process. As Academician Lev Artsimovich said: "Science is any discipline in which the fools of one generation can go beyond the point reached by the geniuses of the previous generation".

This means that one thing remains - to control. As much as possible. For example, nuclear research is, albeit not under the absolute, but quite definite control of international organizations. But with the disposal of garbage - it does not work. And we do not know what processes are taking place in landfills outside the boundaries of our cities.