The Laptev Virus

Sarah and her five researchers sat perched on metallic four-legged stools in the teaching lab. They all wore white lab coats, long pants and closed-toed shoes, as safety protocol dictated.

She understood their distress. Research involved a lot of time spent reading and preparing before any experiments were performed, and even more time reading and researching published scientific literature after the results of the experiments came in, no matter what those results were. Experiments had to be repeated multiple times, with every control conceivable in order for the results to be credible.

Sarah recalled when she had first learned about controls. One of her professors had placed three blank sheets of paper, each on black tables in different parts of the room. The students were allowed to walk over to examine each piece of paper, but were not allowed to touch them. Then he asked what color the papers were. The class had immediately replied that they were all white.

“Are you sure?” he asked. Yes, they were sure. Then he had removed the sheet of paper from the first table and placed it partially on top of the second sheet of paper, so that both could be seen, and now the first sheet looked a pale shade of gray when compared to the second sheet. Then he had walked the two pieces of paper to the third table, and sure enough, the last sheet was clearly a different shade, even whiter.

“If I had separated this classroom of people,” he said, “and asked each of you to tell me the color of these three items, all of you would have reported that they were white. But only one of them is truly white. When I place it next to the others, that’s when I can tell. That’s why you need controls in an experiment. Without something to compare your answers against, your answers cannot be trusted.”

To further complicate matters, they were working with living organisms and many things could go wrong. How often had cultures become contaminated when instead of being kept warm, they had been allowed to grow cold because the motor on an incubator had gone out? How frustrating was it to accidentally contaminate a bacterial culture when the instruments used to seed it had not been properly sterilized in the high pressure steam autoclave? And if the cells were delicate, like human or mouse culture ones, how exasperating was it to have them explode or shrivel up because the solution in which they were suspended, the buffer, was too salty or not salty enough?

Therefore, Sarah could identify with Tally’s frustration at having to change gears and focus on a new set of experiments. “Believe me, I was none too happy about Rhonda’s decision either. But she does not have control over this choice. The president of the university is involved in this decision. Apparently the university’s focus is off of the AIDS problem for now, since the Laptev epidemic is exploding all over the Arctic.”

“Exploding?” asked Emile.

Sarah noticed that Shane, the younger of the two post-docs, made a popping sound with his mouth and moved his fingers as if imitating an explosion. He had only been in her lab for a few months, and Sarah found him to be boorish and quite immature in spite of the fact that he was twenty seven years old. She was still uncertain as to whether he should remain in the lab, but Emile, whom she greatly appreciated as he had worked with her for almost eight years now, had vouched for Shane, saying that he was a hard worker and a clear thinker, even if he occasionally blurted out whatever was on his mind, no matter how inappropriate.

“Okay, poor choice of word, you’re right,” Sarah conceded.

“Although maybe Sarah has a point. It’s killed dozens of people up there,” said Drew, thoughtfully. “This is the virus that was discovered under ice, right?”

“Yes, apparently it’s one of several gigantic viruses that have been found in the last few years in remote places all over the planet. They discovered another one in the permafrost in Siberia, not too far from where the Laptev one was found, and one down in Chile, under the ocean. This particular virus, the one we’ll be investigating, belongs to the group of Megaviridae, which have much larger genomes than the viruses we’ve always known. I believe some of them are large enough in size to be viewed under a light microscope,” said Sarah.

“Whoa! Do you think that the reason more of these viruses are emerging now is because the Arctic is warming at twice the speed of anywhere else on the planet?” said Tally.

“Um,” said Sarah. The thought had not crossed her mind.

“I can see the headlines now,” said Shane, lowering the pitch of his voice to imitate a newscaster and holding his arm out as if he were placing the words on a giant screen. “’FROZEN VIRUS RELEASED. Scientists say the cold never bothered it anyway.’ ”

Several people chuckled at the reference to the Disney movie, and Sarah felt some of the tension in the room disperse.