4 ms·
Have you heard of prions? There's an evolutionary reason why your idea is super creepy
by version_five 4y ago
Have you heard of prions? There's an evolutionary reason why your idea is super creepy
- galangalalgol 4y agoThey are exclusively in nervous tissue right? I'm assuming they are only growing skeletal muscle, perhaps with some adipose cells as well?
- jwestbury 4y agoNot sure about kuru specifically, but other prion diseases can be acquired through tainted meat, e.g. BSE.
- galangalalgol 4y agoWell normally all skeletal muscle contains nerves which might have at least some of the proteins that could flip. But in this case you wouldn't want the muscle to activate, it is like the purest kobe veal kept in a box so that it's muscles never even had to work once. I have often joked engineer meat is like kobe veal, kept in a box and fed nothing but beer. Maybe soon I can test my theory.
- throwawaymaths 4y agoNope. In fact the highest concentration of prions is in your tongue.
- jwestbury 4y agoPrions are a risk when eating meat in general. BSE (mad cow) can be transmitted to humans, and there's some limited laboratory evidence that scrapie can be transmitted cross-species, as well. Though you do raise an interesting though -- are prions going to be more or less likely (or the same) in cultured meat?
- SamBam 4y agoPrions are spread by eating (or otherwise becoming infected with) prions, not by eating something that is you, or is similar to you. There's no reason why a lab-grown me-burger would have prions in it. Or, at least, it's no more likely than a lab-grown beef burger spontaneously developing Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.