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Prions Observed Jumping Species Barrier

Posted by timothy on from the only-applies-if-you-have-brain-tissue dept.

palegray.net writes "Nature is reporting on new findings that prions jump species barriers. Believed to be responsible for ailments such as Creutzfeld-Jakob disease and 'mad cow' disease, prions are thought to disrupt biological processes by causing normal proteins to fold abnormally. Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston have observed infectious prions from hamsters causing abnormal protein development in mice, along with a range of other observations on prion actions in test tube environments. From the article: '... they also found that when a prion jumps species, it produces a new kind of prion. "This is very worrisome," says Claudio Soto, who led the research, published in Cell. "The universe of possible prions could be much larger than we thought."' Sounds like another good reason to donate your spare CPU cycles to projects like Folding@home."

7 of 214 comments (clear)

  1. Folding@Home by martinw89 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    On the flip side, if your energy source is dirty, turning off F@H might be more beneficial in the long run. It's a trade off.

    1. Re:Folding@Home by PopeRatzo · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      My folding PC has a theoretical power of about 1.5 Teraflops alone, harbouring 4 nVidia GPUs.

      It's so unfair that you still have to pay for sex.

      The world is an unfair place, no?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  2. em.....why....... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    human thinks they r the most superior in this universal already?
    not religious view......
    when the mouse thinks like us do......
    then they will ask "why we are to be born as the guinea pig for so-called stupid human scientific experiments?"

  3. I'm not worried, and here's why.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    We're all going to be killed in the massive strangelet chain reaction this week when they start using the LHC.

  4. Ah-HAH! by IonOtter · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I KNEW IT ALL ALONG!!!

    --
    [End Of Line]
  5. Re:Self-righteous asshole... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    You look like you're trying to fellate a troll.

    Would you like some help?

  6. Re:idle cpu? by Taint+Bearer · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    There is not such a thing as "spare CPU cycles" since when you run a *@home program, CPU power consumption pikes. In a laptop, when running any CPU intensive distributed program, battery level is stuck since all the power goes to the CPU instead of charging the battery.

    Or you could just tick the box that says "Pause work while battery power is being used (for laptops)" in the F@H menu. Its not that hard.

    --
    For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert. Arthur C. Clarke (1917 - 2008)