Prions Observed Jumping Species Barrier

palegray.net writes "Nature is reporting on new findings that prions jump species barriers. Believed to be responsible for ailments such as Creutzfeld-Jakob disease and 'mad cow' disease, prions are thought to disrupt biological processes by causing normal proteins to fold abnormally. Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston have observed infectious prions from hamsters causing abnormal protein development in mice, along with a range of other observations on prion actions in test tube environments. From the article: '... they also found that when a prion jumps species, it produces a new kind of prion. "This is very worrisome," says Claudio Soto, who led the research, published in Cell. "The universe of possible prions could be much larger than we thought."' Sounds like another good reason to donate your spare CPU cycles to projects like Folding@home."

Re:comparison

[Anonymous Coward]

Mods, note that the parent post is NOT offtopic. It's talking about mad cows.

The bigger story

[Anonymous Coward]

Nature is reporting on new findings that prions jump species barriers

It's confirmed. Our planet (i.e. Nature) is sentient and into science journalism!

Oh No!

[Anonymous Coward]

That's nothing. I have peons swarming my village.

Help feed a hungry test tube.

[Ostracus]

"The universe of possible prions could be much larger than we thought."' Sounds like another good reason to donate your spare CPU cycles to projects like Folding@home."

Can I donate my spare prions instead?

Re:Folding@Home

[maglor_83]

Your email isn't shown publicly, so I have decided to reply instead.
There is a very insightful comment here [slashdot.org]

Prof. X got a name for them

[jsse]

Prof. Charles Francis Xavier:
"This process is slow, and normally taking thousands and thousands of years. But every few hundred millennia, evolution leaps forward."

"We called them, X-Prions"

Re:While troubling, also cool.

[oldhack]

It seems like any sufficiently complex system(biological proteins in this case), is at considerable risk of having something analogous to life spring up and cause trouble.

Your name is not "Murphy" by any chance?

Re:Folding@Home

[poopdeville]

Or do all four: both, twice.

Re:Folding@Home

[colourmyeyes]

Where can I find parts/info on convection cooling a PC or server?

Re:Folding@Home

[PopeRatzo]

someone e-mail me when there's a comment worth reading.

Or better yet, don't.

Considering you've been here all of about a month and you're already complaining, save us some time and go fuck yourself.

Re:Folding@Home

[PopeRatzo]

People that disagree are eventually forced out

It's like the Republican convention, without the funny hats.