[muglo] FW: Re: 100% [OT] Biology

A few facts might help.

The first widely recognized spongiform encephalopathy was Scrapie in sheep.
It's etiology was traced to feeding the sheep a meal made from carcasses of
dead sheep.
Kuru in humans was discovered in the Fore tribe of New Guinea and was traced
to the ritual cannibalism of family members eating the brains of their
recently dead relatives. The cease of this practice reduced the incidence of
the disease by 100%.
Other encephalopathies were found in mink, , cows, etc all resulting from
the contamination of the feed with what we now call prions.
The old practice of transplanting human lenses led to the realization of the
increased risk of Creutzfeld-Jacob disease (CJD)in these patients. Now we
have the same syndrome (CJD) apparently caused by Bovine Spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE, mad cow disease) as exemplified by the British
experience.
The protein folding helper proteins are called scaffolding proteins. As for
the role of epigenetic changes, jumping genes, natural mutation rates, RNA
and DNA editing, etc., I think that there are better forums for learning
about the most recent data.
The GM food debate will not be solved easily. However, It would be foolish
to give up rust resistant wheat, the Macintosh apple, the Guernsey cow, the
domestic goose, etc. all of which are genetically modified through the
efforts of man.
Quite frankly, we have done more to genetically modify man through the use
of high caloric diets, antibiotics, vaccines, the internal combustion
engine, population migration, and warfare then any modified food will ever
do. 
Ted Medzon


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