Fanghur 14 Fanghur
Posted May 18, 2012
One of the episodes of a TV show I like to watch (Fringe, season 2) was about a oil drilling operation resulting in the release of a deadly (to put it mildly) virus which one of the characters hypothesizes might have been responsible for the eradication of the mega-fauna of the last ice age. While the idea of accidentally uncovering a dormant virus buried deep underground does sound at least somewhat plausible in principle, I strongly suspect that the 'cure' the Fringe team come up with is just a load of nonsense, but I wouldn't mind a second opinion. The scientist discovers that what ultimately rid the world of this doomsday virus 75 000 yeast ago was the last supervolcanic eruption (Mount Toba, I believe), or more specifically its spreading of sulfuric ash all around the world. He discovered that sulfur somehow "kills" this virus.

Does anyone know if there is any plausibility whatsoever in this? I mean, if it were bacteria then it might be possible, given that the earliest antibiotics were sulfur-based (sulfonamides), but I don't see any way for the same to be said for a virus. I suspect that it's just one more thing the show pulled out of a hat, but like I said, I wouldn't mind a second opinion.