4 ms·

Is that known and understood? Prions aren't terribly well understood, there aren't a lot of them. If I'm not mistaken there are doubters that don't believe t

Is that known and understood? Prions aren't terribly well understood, there aren't a lot of them. If I'm not mistaken there are doubters that don't believe the some of the diseases attributed to prions are actually caused by them. I know it's still just theory how it is that they work. At Colorado State University there are stables where deer were stabled while chronic wasting diseases was being studied and they are off limits forever now. On the upside, it seems like they tend to be slower acting diseases but it's still a bit scary to think they can aerosolize.

Groxx 16y ago
>Is that known and understood? Since mad cow disease, the neural and consumable parts were, yes. The cause was not, hard evidence that prions were the cause took a while, and a lot of people didn't / still don't believe it. But a lot of people still think the sun goes around the earth, so that's not a very good measure of something's accuracy. So lets take this from another stance: You have a chronic, deadly, incurable, unknown-cause disease that turns brains to mush. Lets study it without respirators prior to animal testing of aerosoled forms! That's sure to end well! edit: why do people go on down-vote sprees? This whole line, and a few bystanders, just got nailed within a minute of each other. Is it a mis-placed sense of justice? Do I have enemies? Do they honestly think it works?
- ghshephard 16y ago
  I didn't downvote, but with one exception, most posts to this thread appear to be from people going off of their imagination plus a scientific American article or two. HN tends to have a bias towards experts, and the layperson sometimes gets caught in the crossfire - particulary if the appear to posting with some authority on a topic they don't appear to have.
  - Groxx 16y ago
    Certainly. But downvotes tend to be followed with reasons where the reason isn't plain - ie, spam. Which nothing here has been. People can take issue with my tone in the top level comment - I have no problem with that, especially because I am serious about what I said; I honestly wonder if this kind of "safety" might have been hand-waving by a higher-up to save money rather than prevent deaths. But the others?

Groxx 16y ago

>Is that known and understood? Since mad cow disease, the neural and consumable parts were, yes. The cause was not, hard evidence that prions were the cause took a while, and a lot of people didn't / still don't believe it. But a lot of people still think the sun goes around the earth, so that's not a very good measure of something's accuracy. So lets take this from another stance: You have a chronic, deadly, incurable, unknown-cause disease that turns brains to mush. Lets study it without respirators prior to animal testing of aerosoled forms! That's sure to end well! edit: why do people go on down-vote sprees? This whole line, and a few bystanders, just got nailed within a minute of each other. Is it a mis-placed sense of justice? Do I have enemies? Do they honestly think it works?

ghshephard 16y ago
I didn't downvote, but with one exception, most posts to this thread appear to be from people going off of their imagination plus a scientific American article or two. HN tends to have a bias towards experts, and the layperson sometimes gets caught in the crossfire - particulary if the appear to posting with some authority on a topic they don't appear to have.
- Groxx 16y ago
  Certainly. But downvotes tend to be followed with reasons where the reason isn't plain - ie, spam. Which nothing here has been. People can take issue with my tone in the top level comment - I have no problem with that, especially because I am serious about what I said; I honestly wonder if this kind of "safety" might have been hand-waving by a higher-up to save money rather than prevent deaths. But the others?