Hi!
I read an article in the January '95 issue of Scientific American
about PRIONS (proteinaceous infectious particle) disease. These new kinds
of diseases are caused by conformational isomers of proteins present in
the brain. These proteins, besides being pathogenic, are able to induce
other proteins to adopt the same destructive conformation.
I must say I was quite impressed by the discovery. I have a simple
question: Is it possible that conformational isomers could be information
storing systems for the brain? Is it possible that these isomers would
have been unnoticed by researchers? There exists no "conformational
isomers detectors"... yet. Is it possible that proteins could be the brain
RAM ( or ROM...) or am I totally out of it?
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* Guy Tremblay Universite du Quebec a Montreal *
* /\-/\ guy at harfang.login.qc.ca *
* \\ ((O O)) // *
* \\\ \\>// /// "But you musn't assume that a principle *
* \\\\///\\//// that works at one level works at all levels" *
* P.W. Anderson *
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