One of the less highlighted shocks here is that sterilization is not perfect.
The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
61–70 of 133 posts
Re: The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dreading needing reading glasses. Night vision subjectively feels worse. Random yellow spots in changing light conditions that I don’t remember having before.
Forgive me; isn't Lasik all via laser though? Isn't this more like - you share binoculars with someone and your eye fluids mix (if you both push them too close)?
The steps of fixing your eyeballs in place and peeling back the cut-out flap require physical contact with tools.
Re: The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those are all one time use though, right?
Apparently lots of diabetics reuse lancets (thread on another HN story a day or two ago). But I can't imagine anyone sharing used lancets (or needles... except for desperate addicts).
Sure do. But yeah, no sharing. Never.
Re: The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Forgive me; isn't Lasik all via laser though? Isn't this more like - you share binoculars with someone and your eye fluids mix (if you both push them too close)?
The steps of fixing your eyeballs in place and peeling back the cut-out flap require physical contact with tools.
Ok thank you, I didn't know.
Re: The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
#65The more we study the human body, the more questions we get. I wonder if some future Dr. McCoy centuries from now will we us as we do medicine of two centuries ago. We can go to other planets and invent new tech every day, but the body still holds a ton of mysteries.
I think we often forget that each generation always thinks they are at the peak of technology except for what they are yet to discover or solve. That is of course completely tautological, but there is a point hidden in there! For instance people in a pre-germ era were not in constant reflection on the inadequacy of e.g. miasma theory. Instead miasma theory was taken as an assumption and so things it failed to explain were not attributed to its inefficiency, but as to other things that had yet to be explained or discovered.
So we know everything, except for what we don't know. And we assume that what we don't know is complex, because otherwise we would surely know it. Yet history shows that's often far from the case. It's just that knowing what you don't know is rather difficult, even when the unknown is very simple, simply because you might not even stop to consider such a possibility. People thought the black plague was wrought and spread by evil spirits. They could have easily managed to prove it was being spread by rats, if they were so inclined, but who'd have thought to consider such things at the time?
For a contemporary example we are now discovering that the gut biome is seemingly associated, perhaps causally one way or the other, with all sort of other characteristics of the body and even the mind (as in the autism : gut biome link). We've had the technology to discover this for centuries, but who in the world would think to bother imagining a connection between your gut and anything besides ailments of the stomach?
Re: The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
#66What about the Alzehemiers link to HPV virus that formes plaques in the brain? How is that related to transmitable peptiods?
What is it with the cell membranes size of these viruses that can travel up and form plaques in the brain?
Alzhemiers hpv link sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081207134109.htm
Re: The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
#67One of the less highlighted shocks here is that sterilization is not perfect.
It is, for bacteria and viruses. Prions are neither.
Re: The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
#68Ask HN: Are there readily available chemicals that will break down proteins, that would work on prions? How do our digestive systems do it?
Re: The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do they ever stop? What does a surgeon do in their free time?
From cursory googling it looks common for programs to expect you to work right up to the legal limit (80 hours/week based on 4-week averages) during residency. Having 16 hour days for ~7-8 years means that you probably have to get used to being a bit sleep deprived all the time.
What a great idea, to have sleep deprived surgeons. Really, the legal limit should be much less than that for safety reasons alone (patient safety, not surgeon safety).
Re: The Case for Transmissible Alzheimer's Grows
#70Ask HN: Are there readily available chemicals that will break down proteins, that would work on prions? How do our digestive systems do it?
Anything that you think of as 'corrosive' will generally break down proteins. Strong bases or acids.