this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2025
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Collapse
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This is the place for discussing the potential collapse of modern civilization and the environment.
Collapse, in this context, refers to the significant loss of an established level or complexity towards a much simpler state. It can occur differently within many areas, orderly or chaotically, and be willing or unwilling. It does not necessarily imply human extinction or a singular, global event. Although, the longer the duration, the more it resembles a ‘decline’ instead of collapse.
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Prions are scary shit. Not virus, bacteria or fungi but some wrongly folded proteins that are indestructible and contagious:
Sometimes I'm almost glad that I'm an old fuck that doesn't have to care that much for shit like that.
Anyone working in a hospital around prion patients usually have to destroy their equipment, autoclaving or chemical treatment may not destroy the protein entitely
They make me believe that the reason we've never seen evidence of or encountered other life in the universe is because it's flawed. Life itself could very well be fundamentally flawed and doomed to eventually die out.
I mean outside of prions we're even seeing the deterioration of the y chromosome. That alone could wipe out the majority of multicellular life.
i think you might have an inaccurate understanding of sex chromosomes, only mammals have y chromosome
Fair enough I thought most species that sexually reproduced did, but I'm no biologist
Kudos, this might very well be an explanation for the Fermi paradox. Who knows, times are wild, let's enjoy the ride
I just read a thing saying you can clean knives used to process prion meat with 40% bleach for 4 mins to deactivate the protiens. Idk if its true but it was in one of those science pdf sites.
Indeed, autoclaves don't kill them, so they can spread on surgical instruments etc as well.
Prions are stable proteins, forming beta sheet conformation, which stack on top of each other, making a densely packed aggregate as they call it, impervious to most chemical, radiation and low heat. Most normal protein are conformation of alpha helix's.
The way prion beta sheet converts alpha helix to.beta sheet conformation is usually due to a specific part of the prion.