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Sonic the Brain Chemical

Posted by michael on Tuesday October 7, 2003 @07:22AM from the need-more-rings dept.

GamerBub writes "A chemical protein that appears to prevent Parkinson's Disease has been named Sonic the Hedgehog. According to the National Post."

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Re:Why? by ag3n7 · 2003-10-07 07:49 · Score: 5, Informative

The reason why the chemical is called Sonic Hedgehog has only a passing relation to the video game. One of the researchers was an avid video game fan and the chemical's precursors are actually: SoNiC. Hence the play on word, Sonic Hedgehog.

Plus, it has to do with increasing the speed between synapse firings.