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Scientists Discover a Virus That Changes the Brain To "Make Humans More Stupid"
concertina226 writes that researchers have found a virus that appears to reduce people’s thinking power and attention span. "Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Medical School and the University of Nebraska have discovered an algae virus that makes us more stupid by infecting our brains. The researchers were conducting a completely unrelated study into throat microbes when they realized that DNA in the throats of healthy people matched the DNA of a chlorovirus virus known as ATCV-1. ATCV-1 is a virus that infects the green algae found in freshwater lakes and ponds. It had previously been thought to be non-infectious to humans, but the scientists found that it actually affects cognitive functions in the brain by shortening attention span and causing a decrease in spatial awareness. For the first time ever, the researchers proved that microorganisms have the ability to trigger delicate physiological changes to the human body, without launching a full-blown attack on the human immune system."
Fox News
Read this last week on other outlets. Anyway, this would explain the behavior of some of my peers and acquaintances. Makes sense.
EOM
How do we fix it?!
Change the payload to make it make us smarter, or cure diseases of the brain. Similar to what they've done with HIV.
That is an insult to Pond Scum everywhere.
SD
âoeWho knew something as harmless as willful ignorance could end up having real consequences?â
For the first time ever, the researchers proved that microorganisms have the ability to trigger delicate physiological changes to the human body, without launching a full-blown attack on the human immune system.
The first? What about Toxoplasma gondii ?
Ezekiel 23:20
http://www.pnas.org/content/ea...
It explains that they measured the cognitive differences between infected and non-infected people, and how, which wasn't addressed in the clickbait summary.
Those lakes and ponds are in the southern US of A?
I'm not able to function mentally at 100% any time I'm infected with a cold virus. We all know this: it's miserable having a cold. The good news is, when your immune system fights it off you're back to normal (more or less) after a week. Are they saying the effects of this ATCV-1 virus are permanent?
You are all infected!
E.religioni
Who needs a virus when you have new channels run by idiots, staffed by idiots and feeding their opinions to masses of idiots?
Damn you... beat me to it :)
It looks like stupidity may be contagious after all.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
this explains why I need to stay in my hazmat bubble.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
I think you can catch it from facebook.
Actually, with the coming American holiday season, this is just in time. We finally have a reason to be Thankful the western drought...
The virus infected the people researching it.
Yesterday I went swimming in a pond but now I can't fin.. Oh look, a tweet.
This is not the sig you're looking for.
All those rednecks who go swimming in ponds and lakes get infected and become the dullards we see them as.
Of course this doesn't explain people such as the Kardashians, but at least it's a start.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Maybe those conspiracy theorists were on to something after all?
Sig?
News at 11.
Its the illuminati or THEY, you know.
Emperor Notmyfaulticus is going to go down in history as an inexperienced incompetent who got in over his head and:
1. Fucked up relations with Russia
2. Cut-and-ran from Iraq only to have to send troops back in a few days after getting bitch-slapped in mid-term elections (missed that, didn't you?)
3. Ran against "warrantless wiretaps" only to greatly expand their use
4. Conducted "extrajudicial killings" of US citizens
5. Led from behind on marriage equality. Is his position still "evolving"?
6. Presided over the longest long-term decline in US labor force participation in history (yeah, I'm sure that's all on BOOOSH, you tards)
7. Dragged is party down to an utter bitch-slapping in elections, so much so that his Mini-Me in Democrat stronghold Maryland lost the race for Governor.
8. Has set a precedent that laws mean nothing by ignoring Obamacare statutory deadlines - enjoy your policy rate increases that you were supposed to see BEFORE last weeks elections...
9. Runs to the same "I'm mad as hell" script every time HIS government fucks up. Is that still fooling you?
... it must be something in the water.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
did they infect this time?
always knew water was out to get me, now i've got proof.
Is this a sign that the Hinamizawa syndrome can actually exist?
"toxo is a problem 50% of humans have it, and 75% of cat owners" Um, no.
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
November 10, 2034. Twenty years after "Dumb and Dumber To", geriatric comedians Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels reprise their iconic roles from 2014 in "Dumb and Dumber 4". This third installment of the "Dumb and Dumber" franchise brings an interesting sci-fi twist to an otherwise tired premise. The boys stumble (or should we say "toddle"?) into a certain Professor Peabody's lab, and their brains accidentally get infected with an algae virus that Peabody and his pal Sherman have been cooking up, making our heroes - can you believe it? - even dumber. Not even Peabody himself can save the boys from the madcap misadventures that ensue! To heighten the movie experience, select theaters will offer an algae sprinkle free with each purchase of popcorn. Fun for the whole family!
Once again we prove everything has a physical cause. And remember, judge not!
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
...why environmentalists and tree-huggers act the way they do....
is there also a virus that boosts brain power? :D
If not, they should go find one.
...said virus was found to thrive in the american political system, notably congress.
Seriously, this being slashdot everyone is going to use an article like this to insult anyone who disagrees with them and make stupid jokes about politicians, CEOs, various religious groups etc. Don't waste your time here.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Spatial reasoning is the one area where Caucasians completely trump Asians. They have nothing to lose with it's spread but we do.
.. I'm distracted
I'm assuming women and white democrats are 100% infected with this.
A typical assumption by the infected.
FTFY
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
The full text is available here (PDF).
The study is more solid than I expected. I expected to post that this study ignored the factor that intelligence correlates with immune system functioning, as almost all studies ignore these things (e.g, there's a bunch of studies going "low amount of social connections lead to increase in death rates, primarily from increases in infections", where human attraction is strongly correlated with a strong immune system.) However, this use a mouse model to show that cause/effect - and the viruses are clearly a possible cause, due to using mouse models to verify. They used force feeding to get this into the mice, and they used a control group which was also force fed. The only potential procedural problem I see here is lack of blinding - blinding at least isn't mentioned. Since this is a quite significant and unexpected result, I would have liked to have full blinding on the test, rather than having the possibility of unintended researcher influence. Unintended influence has been seen in e.g. homeopathy studies, where homeopathy works on horses if the person administering knows that this is supposed to work, but not under double blinding.
Has anyone thought of submitting 8chan/gg for testing?
I'm pretty sure we have a hotspot developing over there.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I love weed, have you ever smoked?
The Internet, Reality TV, and Sports/Hollywood worship....
"found that it actually affects cognitive functions in the brain by shortening attention span" ... in Americans. So the real story is that they discovered negative attention sp
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
First symptom is the person joins the Green Party.
If there virus is making us more stupid, is there a virus or a way to engineer a virus that will make us smarter?
doesnt this just show that people who swim in algae infested lakes are just a little dumber than the rest of us?
They're dumb because they live in a swamp?
Is it only I believe it is an insult?
Funny how thihttp://science.slashdot.org/story/14/11/10/1240204/scientists-discover-a-virus-that-changes-the-brain-to-make-humans-more-stupid#s virus is rampant in the Bible Belt
FUCK CATS
Yes, toxoplasmosis makes rodents sexually aroused by the smell of cat urine, but I think you're taking it a little too far to blame your fetish on a toxoplasmosis infection.
Stupid and evil.
And in other news, the virus purportedly renders people unable to think rationally about epidemiology. Scientists are baffled as to why a virus would do such a thing, although they professed a mysterious urge to share bodily fluids with those around them and denounce as "sciencephobic" those who shunned their advances.
Seastead this.
If 40-50% of the population has this thing, we would obviously benefit from fixing it, if possible. Virologists, I know it's early, but if the details of the findings of this study are confirmed, what do you think? Can the virus (and its cognitive effects) be eliminated in infected individuals? If so, how? Or is the modified gene expression in the brain likely to be a permanent effect once infection has occurred?
It's been tested all year on congress!
naturally
and the Supreme Court chambers.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
A.G. Riddle wrote a pretty good story based on a similar premise - gene-affecting viruses that modify our intellectual capabilities.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Atla...
You stereotypers are all the same...
... For Someone to independently reproduce the results because Anyone can make up a paper and claim, "We show ___." If the Researchers are right, independently reproducing the results both of the cognitive tests and the DNA detection, should be pretty easy.
This stuff has great potential. Big corporations are rushing to corner the market. Scientists are trying to make it more effective....
Slashdot needs to require links to the original article instead of the clickbait as a submission standard.
. . . pressing ^W for now.
we do not let self-entitled four year olds in adult bodies name anything.
Could this be how it starts?
They don't want brains to eat, just to augment their depreciated functionality... like asking for water.
also known as bolsa-famÃlia. Widly spread over brazil.
You don't have to look any farther than the sky overhead when the tanker aircraft are out spraying chemicals and metals into the atmosphere for stupid. Aluminum and barium are sprayed daily around the planet to protect computer chip technology in aircraft from harmful solar radiation, and it can make you stupid as well. Aluminum affects the ability for the synopses firing off in the brain, and stifles those connections needed for simple thought processes. This also is not benign in the environment as some officials claim. Look at the diminishing bee polations around the world. Its making them stupid too. Its terror for life on earth as we know it raining down on us and most of us are completely unaware. I'm not even going to get into the fluoride [by-product of aluminum manufacturing processes] in our water that's making us and our children stupid too and killing us.
And all their viewers/fans have it. Wait that'll include Kanye West too! Egads they're everywhere!
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Must be what creationists and other religious fundamentalists are infected with.
...all the tricked out all wheel pickup trucks with tricked out suspension and a Confederate flag in the back window tooling around the lake.
That is incorrect. Get some actual information.
http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/t...
And cats might be the path way to a cure from AIDS(HIV)
http://www.medicalnewstoday.co...
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
TL;DR
...found only political arguments
Shouldn't it be "stupider"?
So they WISH! LOL!
You give your politicians *way* too much credit if you attribute their actions to stupidity.
Their problem is disloyalty. They are not loyal to the majority of people, but rather, to an elite minority of rich people (usually including themselves).
Following the money makes their actions line up quite nicely with their incentives....far better than if you just chalk it all up to incompetence.
They found the Hipster Virus.
How's That for Hate?
That is the first thing that came to mind.
A scientist tries to undo some sort of plague or something that is slowly dulling his intellect...along with the rest of the human race.
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What I'd really like to see is some kind of chart showing the relative prevalence of this virus across the US. Say, a US map showing areas of high / low concentration in red / blue.
This virus is the sole reason General Motors remains in business..... Ie only a stupid person would buy one if their vehicles. As there aren't that many naturally acuring stupid people the virus must be having an affect on otherwise normal people. ;-)
Check the Washinton, DC water system, especially the pipes around the Capital.
Flip - an outbreak of ATCV-1
Thanks, I was starting to become concerned with what will replace the current 24/7 outbreak or crisis in the news. Now I know.
Was my old bandmate stupid as a log from to try to live off of Blue-green algae, or did the algae make him so stupid he believed the "patent medicine" claims given it? Frankly, I don't need anything that can cure "sluggish heart" , impotence, and "reluctant liver", plus cancer, baldness, emphysema, rash, zits, high blood pressure , low blood pressure, no blood pressure, etc etc. Good old Dr Foster's "Genuine Turkish tincture" can do that real good, already. Great for the "vapors", too ;-)
I also hear this virus hangs out in water fountains immediately outside political science classrooms!
My karma is bad. Don't get too close!!!
Scientists have discovered virus originated in US before spreading to Africa. It was first discovered around the time of President Reagan's election and has since become endemic in US spreading first across the South and Mid-west then north and eastwards. Virus currently threatening Canada but possibility of new Government following elections in 2015 provide hope for keeping virus at bay.
I don't know if this will make a difference, but I created a petition asking for further research:
Short URL: http://wh.gov/ixUiN
Long URL: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/investigate-algae-virus-atcv-1-seems-makes-people-dumber-and-clumsier-found-50-population-so-far/B1ykRbm6
"Doctors report that they have discovered a cure for apathy.
However nobody has shown the slightest interest in it." -- unknown
Google: bbc cat parasite
and you'll find articles like
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26240297
"We know, for example, that people who have antibodies to toxoplasma are more than twice as likely to be involved in a traffic accident. It could be that the parasite is making us, like rodents, behave in a more reckless fashion."
...football and baseball???
This is the thing that infected Sen. James Inhofe (R-Kochlahoma) in summer of 2011.
http://wonkette.com/448805/mother-nature-attacks-jim-inhofe-for-climate-change-denial
And he's been swimming in that same pond for decades.
That explains a lot.
Sounds like they working up another scheme so they making people to accept easier their "good medicines" and vaccines in MEGA pharma for money in the world and make human being a huge experimental laboratory. OMG! Where is Mengele to feel so happy about it? :P
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