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An interesting quote from the wikipedia article on prions: "In 2015, researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston found that plants
by ahelwer 6y ago
An interesting quote from the wikipedia article on prions:
"In 2015, researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston found that plants can be a vector for prions. 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."
Dark dreams of a planet's biosphere irreversibly becoming utterly hostile to organisms that use neurons to function, through accumulation of immortal zombie nanoparticles that convert more and more proteins to their side.
- Skgqie1 6y agoThat's actually a terrifying and seemingly feasible dystopian future
- UncleOxidant 6y ago> found that plants can be a vector for prions. 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 OMG. I recall watching a PBS show on prions back in the 90s where they tried to destroy them in various ways : burning, burying, etc, and they were extremely difficult to destroy.
- dnautics 6y agothis is well known. Co-grazing scrapie sheep will cross over into cows as mad cow disease. However, co-grazing CWD deer will not cross over into cows or sheep (this is also well known). The determinants of why X can or can't cross over into Y are not well-understood, yet.
- kayodelycaon 6y agoSodium hydroxide works, but you're basically chemically destroying anything organic. The alternatives include 1,000°C fires and other such fun things.
- Mediterraneo10 6y agoIncidentally, Kim Stanley Robinson's novel Aurora, which aims to deflate optimism that human beings will ever expand past our solar system, describes an attempt to colonize an Earth-like planet that fails because its environment is rich in prions.
- abraxas 6y agoAnd you spoiled an excellent book for others on the site, why?
- Mediterraneo10 6y agoMentioning this isn’t a spoiler – it comes fairly early on, and before KSR gets to what are arguably his main points – unless you are one of those people who think that any mention whatsoever of a book’s plot is a spoiler. Plus, it was widely discussed in reviews at the time.
- abraxas 6y agoIt's in the middle of the book and is a very important spoiler. You very much summarized the first half of the book.
- Mediterraneo10 6y agoExactly, "first half of the book" is not spoiler territory. It is the sort of thing typically summarized in a review. One can only reasonably demand a spoiler warning for a twist that comes later in a book. What will surprise readers of Aurora are two things that happen after that prion plot.
- mleonhard 6y agoI feel angry after reading your comment. I have that book on my shelf and plan to read it soon. You spoiled part of the story. :(
- 6y ago
- soldehierro 6y agoIt's absolutely terrifying not only how dangerous these diseases can be, but also how little research funding they get. If there is ever a widespread prion outbreak, it'll end up making Ebola look like a common cold.
- lumost 6y agoIs there any explanation for why this hasn't occurred already?
- ficklepickle 6y agoMoose hunting seems quite popular in NB. Moose are also susceptible to CWD. The moose population there has increased nearly 10x since 1960. In the 2020 hunting season, 3900 moose were taken. That is more than the entire population in 1960. So it seems like the people of NB having been eating increasing amounts of moose over the years. It will be interesting to see if these unlucky folks are moose eaters. Edit: Link - https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/2020-new-brunswick-moose-hunt-was-a-record-breaker-1.5744666 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/2020-new-brunsw...
- mleonhard 6y agoWouldn't the doctors have already tested the patients for CWD?
- abledon 6y agothe world solved the COVID-19 vaccine problem pretty quickly when every country turned their attention to it..... I wonder what modern medicine could do for Prion disease in say.. 2035. I bet we could figure out some cool protective mechanisms.