<html><head></head><body><div class="ydp1b4d1fffyahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><div style="font-size: 13px;"></div>
<div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false" style=""><font size="3">What is a prion?</font></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false" style="font-size: 13px;"><span><span style="color: rgb(50, 50, 50); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;">"The word itself derives from 'proteinaceous infectious particle'; it refers to the initially heretical hypothesis that the infectious agent causing those diseases consists only of protein, with no nucleic acid genome. (All previously known pathogens, such as bacteria and viruses, contain nucleic acids, which enable them to reproduce.) The prion hypothesis explained why the mysterious infectious agent is resistant to ultraviolet radiation, which breaks down nucleic acids, but is susceptible to substances that disrupt proteins."</span></span><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false" style="font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-a-prion-specifica/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" class="">https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-a-prion-specifica/</a> <span><span style="color: rgb(50, 50, 50); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;"><br></span></span></div><div><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><font size="3">I can't begin to equal Dick Wagner's knowledge of the detailed mechanisms by which self-replicating and infectious proteins operate. This was not Dick's primary area of investigation, but he is far better equipped to explain what happens and how this can lead to infectious diseases than I am.</font></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><font size="3"><br></font></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><font size="3">However, I can scrounge up a Scientific American level of explanation as to generally what's involved and why it's so difficult to diagnose and treat prion diseases. Give me a few months. </font></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><font size="3"><br></font></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><font size="3">The artificial nanobots look to me like they would be structured more like prions than like viri, but I could be wrong. Viri have RNA or DNA as well as proteins, whereas prions are bare proteins. Usually the "programming" of bio-nanobots is accomplished with carefully selected pieces of DNA or RNA, last I read. These nanobots may be different. </font></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><font size="3">BTW, Alzheimer's Disease is not presently thought to result from an infectious agent. But there could be a "vaccine" to prevent or forestall the process by which Alzheimer's forms plaques in the brain, last i read about the subject. So the human body itself can also make abnormal proteins which can accumulate and ultimately kill us. No one knows exactly how or why, but it's at least partly genetic in at least some families. </font></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><font size="3"><br></font></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><font size="3">I can do a talk after I do the three or four other talks I'm preparing for various groups, which include a talk on Linux for Old PCs for our own Lexington Computers and Technology Group (LCTG) at the end of this month. And a short piece about the Windows 11 upgrade notifications and how to deal with them, at the request of John Rudy, tentatively scheduled for Dec. 22nd. </font></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><font size="3"><br></font></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><font size="3">I still have "a few" slides to prepare...</font></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><font size="3">-- Bob Primak </font></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><font size="3"><br></font></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false" style="font-size: 13px;"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false" style="font-size: 13px;"><span><span style="color: rgb(50, 50, 50); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px;"><br></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 13px;"><br></div>
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On Friday, December 3, 2021, 06:16:33 PM EST, Evie <et8686@gmail.com> wrote:
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<div><div id="yiv8996155815"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>Very interesting! Bob,</div><div><br clear="none"></div><div>
It's very interesting because it could be used in many applications (medical, and even environmental, etc.).<br clear="none"></div><div>How did the scientists actually do it in the lab?.....The process from the stem cells of the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) to xenobots, which are less than a millimeter (0.04
inches) wide. <br clear="none"></div><div>
We all know how AI is installed in computer robots, but how
"bio artificial intelligence" is installed in frog's stem cells?🤔</div><div>
The article explained "The supercomputer came up with a C-shape that resembled Pac-Man, the 1980s video game." and
"The shape is, in essence, the program. The shape influences how the
xenobots behave to amplify this incredibly surprising process."
🤔🤔🤔 And I am totally lost reading the <span class="yiv8996155815gmail-highwire-cite-metadata-article-category yiv8996155815gmail-highwire-cite-metadata">Research Article</span>, Kinematic self-replication in reconfigurable organisms, <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" target="_blank" href="https://www.pnas.org/content/118/49/e2112672118">https://www.pnas.org/content/118/49/e2112672118</a><span class="yiv8996155815gmail-highwire-cite-metadata-article-category yiv8996155815gmail-highwire-cite-metadata">!🙄🙄🙄<br clear="none"></span></div><div><br clear="none"></div><div>
Are prion proteins functioning similar to stem cells?
Dick Wagner's talk on the CRISPR page has terms I am not familiar with.
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</div><div><br clear="none"></div><div>Do I ask too many questions? Maybe you could talk about this in one of the meetings as you have a biochemistry background.👍</div><div>Evie<br clear="none"></div></div><br clear="none"><div id="yiv8996155815yqt70692" class="yiv8996155815yqt8622409640"><div class="yiv8996155815gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="yiv8996155815gmail_attr">On Thu, Dec 2, 2021 at 1:26 AM Robert Primak <<a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:bobprimak@yahoo.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:bobprimak@yahoo.com">bobprimak@yahoo.com</a>> wrote:<br clear="none"></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex;" class="yiv8996155815gmail_quote"><div><div style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><div></div>
<div dir="ltr">I saw that. I chafe at calling this a "life form", but they have to bait those clicks somehow.</div><div dir="ltr"><br clear="none"></div><div dir="ltr">I refer you to Dick Wagner's talk on CRISPR, wherein he chafes at calling a bacterial phage a virus. Viri are only endemic to eukariotic cells (with a true nucleus and certain chromosome characteristics). </div><div dir="ltr"><br clear="none"></div><div dir="ltr">Similarly, viri have been called life forms by some (not all) scientists, though they do not fulfill all the criteria of a complete life form. Then there are prion proteins, which are self-replicating but lack other characteristics even viri possess. <span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">(Mad Cow Disease is caused by a prion, as is Chronic Wasting Disease in wild deer. And Scrapies in sheep.) </span></span></div><div dir="ltr"><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" target="_blank" href="https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-422X-8-493#:~:text=Animal%20prion%20diseases%20include%20scrapie,and%20spongiform%20encephalopathy%20of%20primates.">https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-422X-8-493#:~:text=Animal%20prion%20diseases%20include%20scrapie,and%20spongiform%20encephalopathy%20of%20primates.</a><br clear="none"></div><div dir="ltr"><br clear="none"></div><div dir="ltr">(I minored in biochemistry in college, and did a tiny bit of grad school before dropping out.)</div><div dir="ltr"><span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br clear="none"></span></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">So now we have synthetic "life" forms. The lines blur even further.</span></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br clear="none"></span></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">The machines are taking over, and we will be serving them before long. </span></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br clear="none"></span></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">-- Bob Primak</span></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br clear="none"></span></span></div><div> </div>
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On Wednesday, December 1, 2021, 08:07:10 PM EST, Evie <<a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:et8686@gmail.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:et8686@gmail.com">et8686@gmail.com</a>> wrote:
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<div><div id="yiv8996155815gmail-m_-2650261699284965843yiv6112678226"><div dir="ltr"><div>Very interesting......<br clear="none">
</div><div><br clear="none"></div><div>World's first living robots can now reproduce, scientists say</div><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" target="_blank" href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/29/americas/xenobots-self-replicating-robots-scn/index.html">https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/29/americas/xenobots-self-replicating-robots-scn/index.html</a>
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