Scientists Sequence Black Death Bacteria

First time accepted submitter Quince alPillan writes "The bacteria behind the Black Death has a very unusual history. Its ancestor is an unassuming soil bacterium and the current strains of Yersinia pestis still infects thousands of people annually, but no longer causes the suite of horrifying symptoms associated with the medieval plagues. The radical differences, in fact, had led some to suggest that we had been blaming the wrong bacteria. Now, researchers have obtained DNA from some of London's plague victims, and confirmed that Y. pestis appears to be to blame. But the sequences also suggest that the strains of bacteria we see today may be different from the ones that rampaged through Europe."

Comments

I have to do it

[slartibartfastatp]

Blackteria

Re:The Black Death isn't coming back

[mcmonkey]

the Black Death was ugly. Imagine half the population of your entire city or town dying off in 1 or 2 years. Nasty business that.

But imagine the morning commute. Or finding a parking spot at the mall. Getting a last minute table at your favorite restaurant.

Just saying.

Re:The Black Death isn't coming back

[robthebloke]

Very true. To recover the corpses of the plauge victims, they dug up some ash, unburnt it to get back to original bodies, and were able to extract samples of the original bacterium from that. It's remarkable what technology can do these days don't you think?

Re:The Black Death isn't coming back

[Dog-Cow]

I think I saw that on an episode of CSI:Miami!

Re:The Black Death isn't coming back

[oldmac31310]

What happened was labour was in short supply so the peasants got to name their price for the work they did. Previously they were considered lucky to have a roof over their heads and enough to eat.