
Ancient virus found hibernating in the human genome–and it might wake up - sprucely
http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/03/ancient-virus-found-hibernating-in-the-human-genome-and-it-might-wake-up/
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ChuckMcM
This was a fun story, I found the paper impenetrable though :-) I am sure that
somewhere a writing team has latched on to this idea as a "secret off switch"
for humanity which was programmed into the genome by early aliens which would
allow them to expose us to the "activator" and cause everyone to immediately
get sick and die. Except our scientist/hero has discovered the plot and is in
a race to using gene therapy techniques to counter-infect the population with
a tailored virus which removes this DNA. The secret alien operatives on the
planet get wind of this and immediately start trying to discredit our hero
team as terrorists trying to infect humans with a genetically engineered
plague. Culminating in a massive, but nominally clandistine, human vs alien
battle which ends up saving the world by giving people a cold.

Hell the story practically writes itself.

