Scientists Discover a Virus That Changes the Brain To "Make Humans More Stupid" 275
concertina226 writes that researchers have found a virus that appears to reduce people’s thinking power and attention span. "Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Medical School and the University of Nebraska have discovered an algae virus that makes us more stupid by infecting our brains. The researchers were conducting a completely unrelated study into throat microbes when they realized that DNA in the throats of healthy people matched the DNA of a chlorovirus virus known as ATCV-1. ATCV-1 is a virus that infects the green algae found in freshwater lakes and ponds. It had previously been thought to be non-infectious to humans, but the scientists found that it actually affects cognitive functions in the brain by shortening attention span and causing a decrease in spatial awareness. For the first time ever, the researchers proved that microorganisms have the ability to trigger delicate physiological changes to the human body, without launching a full-blown attack on the human immune system."
Virus Name (Score:5, Funny)
Fox News
Virus Name (Score:4, Funny)
That is an insult to Pond Scum everywhere.
SD
Virus Name (Score:2)
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Miley Cyrus.
The real story (Score:2)
"found that it actually affects cognitive functions in the brain by shortening attention span" ... in Americans. So the real story is that they discovered negative attention sp
origin traced back to political postcards (Score:2)
and the Supreme Court chambers.
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I was thinking, Facebook
Re:Virus Name (Score:4, Funny)
I think a comment rating of "Redundant" is even funnier in this case.
Re:Virus Name (Score:4, Insightful)
Can we just agree that all the news stations are incredibly retarded?
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They've done this study twice a few years apart. Ask people non-objective questions that have factual answers, then find out which stations they watch. Perhaps a false correlation, but it is a pretty strong indicator. Maybe stupid people are drawn to Fox, and it's not Fox that's misinforming them?
http://news-beta.slashdot.org/... [slashdot.org]
Re:Virus Name (Score:5, Insightful)
Why isn't it true? From what I've seen, they all offer their own flavor of propaganda, fluff pieces, and a pro-mass-surveillance (though they occasionally put on someone who is slightly opposed to it) agenda.
Re:Virus Name (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Virus Name (Score:5, Insightful)
It's well known that Fox is the worst source of TV news in the US, but the others aren't great either. Even with NPR, which always tops the survey you're thinking of, (in terms of listeners being better informed), you still have to be able to read between the lines a bit. There's also a bit of self-selection going on in that NPR listeners tend to already be better educated than consumers of television news. And there's a lot of news that even NPR doesn't cover - although by carrying the BBC, some of those gaps are filled in. But educated people are more likely to get their news from many sources.
People who get all their news from television are not going to be well-informed, whatever the station. Fox is a different animal altogether.
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Really? I guess that explains why MSNBC is ranked just slightly higher than tabloid journalism.
Re:Virus Name (Score:4, Interesting)
Fox is objectively worse then MSNBC, or any other news show.
There is a reason it can't be called News in Canada. Why Rupert change what the show is depending on the court case. Sometime sit's news, and sometime sit's entertainment.
Which isn't to say MSNBC can't be better.
AS far a political reporting goes, NPR is the best.
Yeah, yeah, someone is going to scream liberal, but I have been paying attention to the questions they ask any politician, and the difficulty of the question is the same for any politician.
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We were speaking of television news, were we not?
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No, because it started out with Fox News and MSNBC being mentioned. I thought that would be obvious.
Is only television news biased, or is that the one that best fits your argument?
No on the former, and no on the latter. Do you want to expand it simply because it best fits your argument? I thought not.
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"All X are the same" is a disinformation meme.
No, it's a straw man on your part. I did not say they were the same.
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"Can we just agree that all the news stations are incredibly retarded?"
"Can we just agree that all the news stations are incredibly retarded?"
"Can we just agree that all the news stations are incredibly retarded?"
There, I quoted it three times. I did not say exactly how "incredibly retarded" each of them were, just that they're all "incredibly retarded." That does not mean they are all the exact same in all ways, and any such interpretation is unreasonable.
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Re:Virus Name (Score:5, Insightful)
Which one peddles lies about death panels, calls scientists liars, has a psychatrist who diagnoses the President on air, and says slavery and jim crow werent so bad?
Re:Virus Name (Score:4, Insightful)
See? That's what we call Projection which is a form of denial of reality.
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Or have you never heard of the HMOs that denied treatment, resulting in the death of a person? Good thing we limited the liability of the private death panels to the value of the treatment denied.
Re:Virus Name (Score:5, Funny)
The Palin Syndrome
a.k.a "The Palindrome" :)
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To Ida Amin: I'm a idiot.
Dog, as a devil deified, lived as a god.
Solo gigolos
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In Europe, football has replaced religion for that particular matter...
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You must be a particularly stupid libertarian to fail to realize that the Republicans are just as totalitarian as the Democrats.
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Quit projecting, mate. It's no one else's fault that you're too scared to leave your parents' basement.
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You do realize of course that this country was founded on Liberalism right? Thomas Jefferson was about as much of a "Liberal" as you could POSSIBLY get. I mean he essentially channeled Locke word for word.
Is it actually Liberalism you hate? and not Socialism, Statism, Left-wing pseudo-Marxism, etc?
Hack it! (Score:2, Interesting)
Change the payload to make it make us smarter, or cure diseases of the brain. Similar to what they've done with HIV.
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Reboot did it. [wikia.com]
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No, he doesn't, and neither do you.
First time? (Score:5, Interesting)
For the first time ever, the researchers proved that microorganisms have the ability to trigger delicate physiological changes to the human body, without launching a full-blown attack on the human immune system.
The first? What about Toxoplasma gondii [theatlantic.com]?
Re:First time? (Score:5, Informative)
Cat ownership is actually just a minor factor - the feces of an infected cat are infectious only after a certain period of time, and cleaning the litter once a day removes the cysts before they get any chance to infect anyone. Furthermore, there's only a limited period during which a cat can excrete infectious feces, only a few weeks of its entire life. So the combined probability of your cat getting infected, excreting infectious feces, those feces staying in the litter, and you getting infected is really, really small.
Anyway, I was referring to mental processes being altered by microorganisms that don't get significant immune response, which is what this discovery seems to be about. If you read it again, it wasn't specifically about people being "made stupid".
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Re:First time? (Score:5, Interesting)
That doesn't explain the high prevalence of toxo antibodies in some human populations. CDC estimates about 20% [cdc.gov] of the USA population has been affected by toxo at some time in their life. Toxo is a very prevalent parasite, suggesting that its modes of transmission are a lot more effective than parent post implies.
There is anecdotal evidence that women who choose to live with multiple cats are often polyamorous or blatantly promiscuous, take risks with social norms that lead to frequent loss of jobs, and are exceptionally tolerant of the stench of cat piss. Rats that have been infected with toxo have been shown to become more daring than the average rat, and to be attracted to the odor of cat piss [nih.gov].
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Re:First time? (Score:4, Insightful)
If you live with a woman who has lots of cats and some of the indicators of toxo, then-- because she is likely to be a risk taker-- you are at risk of becoming infected. This is true whether you are husband, lover, child, or room mate. This is because she is a risk taker, and will take risks with how she handles food, kitchen implements, etc that will increase your risk.
The risk of getting toxo cannot be controlled by you exercising good hygeinic practices. It also depends on everyone around you who handles cats to also exercise good hygeine. But those with toxo are the ones who will stretch the "5 second rule" to "less than a minute". And then comfortably serve you the canape that was just rescued from the floor next to the cat's litter box.
Not all cat owners are dangerous to your health. But those who have multiple cats and don't mind living in a house with a permanent faint odor of cat piss maybe should be regarded as dangerous.
BTW, I don't know for sure whether this is a gender-specific thing and I may be doing a bad in implying that this is a women's issue kind of thing. Anecdotally it seems that way, and the research seems to suggest that men are not as susceptible to toxo induced behavioral problems as are women. But I don't know that for sure.
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If you live with a woman who has lots of cats and some of the indicators of toxo, then-- because she is likely to be a risk taker-- you are at risk of becoming infected. This is true whether you are husband, lover, child, or room mate. This is because she is a risk taker, and will take risks with how she handles food, kitchen implements, etc that will increase your risk. ... But those who have multiple cats and don't mind living in a house with a permanent faint odor of cat piss maybe should be regarded as dangerous.
You both 1) have completely missed my point AND 2) keep ignoring the biological reality for some reason: EVERY cat can be infectious no more than two of three weeks ONCE in her entire life (spanning, say, twenty years). Even having multiple cats and being in contact with them isn't relevant. Even the scenario you mentioned is irrelevant. If a woman with a lot of cats and symptoms of having undergone toxoplasmosis is a matter of the past. The cats are no longer infectious by then. The ENVIRONMENTAL persisten
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I've never seen a cat lady I'd want to sleep with.
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"toxo is a problem 50% of humans have it, and 75% of cat owners" Um, no.
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That is incorrect. Get some actual information.
http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/t... [cdc.gov]
And cats might be the path way to a cure from AIDS(HIV)
http://www.medicalnewstoday.co... [medicalnewstoday.com]
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It's a problem, in that it encourages risky behaviors. This, however, isn't the same as either making you smarter or stupider...though it will often result in your acting stupider. There is, however, no evidence that if you stop and think about it, you won't make decisions that are just as intelligent as you would otherwise make. My guess it that it softens the effectiveness of the voice of caution. Another way of saying that is it makes you braver.
It's quite fortunate that it's not as potent on humans
Real article is here (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.pnas.org/content/ea... [pnas.org]
It explains that they measured the cognitive differences between infected and non-infected people, and how, which wasn't addressed in the clickbait summary.
Re:Real article is here (Score:5, Interesting)
Rather an odd study. Viral DNA apparently present in nearly half the subjects. They went straight to a mouse model before attempting to confirm the (small) effect in a larger, independent human cohort. No evidence that the virus actually infects mammalian cells, which would be an extremely unusual host range (the only precedent of anything similar they could find to cite is in an obscure Ukrainian journal). I'd say 'more research is needed', but maybe that's just the virus talking.
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*whispers* pay no mind to the man behind the mucous curtain...there's no virus making you stupid...yessssssss....
So... (Score:5, Funny)
it all makes sense now... (Score:4, Funny)
this explains why I need to stay in my hazmat bubble.
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Duh... why would you want to be on fire? /Virus
you can catch it over the internet (Score:2, Funny)
I think you can catch it from facebook.
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I think you can catch it from Twit ter.
At last: an explanation! (Score:2)
Actually, with the coming American holiday season, this is just in time. We finally have a reason to be Thankful the western drought...
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Keep in mind that reality show characters aren't the people who decide to produce the show, nor air it, nor are they the ones who keep the show on the air by tuning in each week by the million.
So basically, you just said that Hollywood TV execs and reality show viewers have a lower intellect than the characters on shows like "Swamp People" and "Honey Boohoo."
Can't say I disagree with that one.
Re:At last: an explanation! (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, it's a bit more then that.
MIllion is, techncally correct in that it's more then 1 million. But it very few show that break 2 million viewer. And many of those viewers are the saem ones that watch other reality shows.
Reality shows are cheap. This is why you have a lot of them, you need very few viewers to make a profit.
More people watched the lowest rated episode of the Beverly hillbillys then watched the highest rated reality TV.
"s have a lower intellect"
Why would it be lower, as opposed to the same?
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Minnesota only has 16 lakes?
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What are you talking about? He said it has 65,536 lakes.
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Please explain
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http://science.slashdot.org/co... [slashdot.org] says 10000 lakes. 10000 in binary is 16 in decimal.
Yesterday (Score:5, Funny)
Yesterday I went swimming in a pond but now I can't fin.. Oh look, a tweet.
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U cna't not splel good eihter.
Chemtrails anyone? (Score:2)
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Joseph Heller — "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you."
Your theory would also explain why most Slashdot readers aren't complete idiots, we spend most of our time indoors.
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only if 'on to something' means 'ignorant of even the most basic science', then yes.
That explains a lot ... (Score:3)
... it must be something in the water.
what poor sod? (Score:2)
did they infect this time?
always knew water was out to get me, now i've got proof.
Brain boost virus,.. (Score:2)
is there also a virus that boosts brain power? :D
If not, they should go find one.
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they should go find one.
Too much work. The football game is on TV.
In related news (Score:2, Funny)
...said virus was found to thrive in the american political system, notably congress.
Nothing to see here, move along (Score:3)
Seriously, this being slashdot everyone is going to use an article like this to insult anyone who disagrees with them and make stupid jokes about politicians, CEOs, various religious groups etc. Don't waste your time here.
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You must be new here.
I stand corrected.
tl;dr (Score:2)
Quarantine (Score:3)
Has anyone thought of submitting 8chan/gg for testing?
I'm pretty sure we have a hotspot developing over there.
Yeah, a virus called.... (Score:2)
The Internet, Reality TV, and Sports/Hollywood worship....
People don't live in a swamp because they're dumb (Score:2)
Sciencephobia (Score:3)
And in other news, the virus purportedly renders people unable to think rationally about epidemiology. Scientists are baffled as to why a virus would do such a thing, although they professed a mysterious urge to share bodily fluids with those around them and denounce as "sciencephobic" those who shunned their advances.
The Atlantis Gene? (Score:2)
A.G. Riddle wrote a pretty good story based on a similar premise - gene-affecting viruses that modify our intellectual capabilities.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Atla... [amazon.com]
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Zombie apocolypse (Score:2)
Could this be how it starts?
They don't want brains to eat, just to augment their depreciated functionality... like asking for water.
Kardashians (Score:2)
And all their viewers/fans have it. Wait that'll include Kanye West too! Egads they're everywhere!
Article (Score:2)
TL;DR
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Re: All well and good, but... (Score:2, Troll)
Eat more real food and less carrageenan? [wikipedia.org]
Re: All well and good, but... (Score:5, Funny)
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Where exactly does the water for the Capital building (Congress) come from? Has anyone checked into this?
It's well known that they use Deer Park bottled water (almost a million dollars a year worth). Have you ever tried that crap? How can it not be infected.
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Your comment is both funny and scary insightful at the same time.
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Carrageenan by definition is real food, edible substance obtained from an animal. That is NOT the problem with the american diet.
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from a plant. oooo, that changes everything doesn't it. No, it doesn't, still a food by definition
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Nonsense, it's in domain Archaeplastida which are plants
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It also explains why this news appeared on Slashdot one week late.
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Or you aren't thinking it through because it's infecting you.
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I'm not able to function mentally at 100% any time I'm infected with a cold virus. We all know this: it's miserable having a cold. The good news is, when your immune system fights it off you're back to normal (more or less) after a week. Are they saying the effects of this ATCV-1 virus are permanent?
Considering they weren't even trying, and managed to find a sample where 44% of the participants had the virus... Its hard to imagine that the effects could be short term unless the research was done literally on a boat on the lake.
Hypnotoad (Score:2)
FTFY
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You misspelled "Dum n dumer foor".
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No, they're just copying Apple as usual.
And as usual, a decade late.
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Too bad for most of their features, MS had it first.