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No-meat diet is not 100% prion-proof according to Wikipedia: > When researchers fed hamsters grass that grew on ground where a deer that died with chronic wast
by hdhzy 10y ago
No-meat diet is not 100% prion-proof according to Wikipedia:
> When researchers fed hamsters grass that grew on ground where a deer that died with chronic wasting disease (CWD) was buried, the hamsters became ill with CWD, suggesting that prions can bind to plants, which then take them up into the leaf and stem structure, where they can be eaten by herbivores, thus completing the cycle. It is thus possible that there is a progressively accumulating number of prions in the environment.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion
- dnautics 10y agoof course, you can still get CJD/kuru genetically, sporadically, from bone marrow transplants, etc. Also: fatal familial insomnia, but that is a dramatically different pathology and we don't know why it's different from CJD.
- adrianN 10y agoPrions are nature's grey goo.
- maxerickson 10y agoI would put bacteria in that role and call them green goo. One thing I find interesting is that gray goo would have to compete with bacteria for resources. I'm not sure that it would necessarily be easy.
- jcoffland 10y agoPrions are not alive and therefore do not need to compete for resources to further their existence.
- computerphage 10y agoIf "not alive" => "doesn't need resources", then "needs resources" => "alive". That doesn't seem right to me.
- Sophistifunk 10y agoThat's... not how logic works.
- ianterrellwt 10y agoI think that might be how logic works. The fallacy seems to be with its parent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contraposition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contraposition
- Sophistifunk 10y ago"Alive implies needs-resources" is not the same as "needs-resources implies alive"
- dpark 10y agoOf course not. And if he'd said "alive implies needs resources", the argument would not be valid. ianterrelwt posted the article explaining this.
- andrewflnr 10y agoYou don't need to hedge. That's exactly how logic works.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- ssambros 10y agoThat's exactly how logic works.
- computerphage 10y agoYes... it is. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contraposition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contraposition
- pvg 10y ago"All cats die. Socrates is dead. Therefore Socrates is a cat."
- xkcd-sucks 10y agoThey absolutely compete for resources, in the form of peptides that can fold into more prion aggregates or other proteins
- maxerickson 10y agoNow that the giant logic thread has played out below I feel I have to point out that I was saying that technological gray goo would have to compete with green goo, I wasn't talking about prions competing for resources.
- webkike 10y agoI have read on Wikipedia that lichens degrade prions, so I disagree with that analogy
- Bjorkbat 10y agoTrue, but one might argue that it's at least a step in the right direction if you're really worried about transmissible prions.