Tuesday, February 15, 2011

A villain that corrupts those it touches

Ed Yong, an award-winning British science writer:

Imagine a villain that corrupts those it touches.

It can convert other individuals into twisted doppelgangers that eventually gather to form a destructive legion.

This sounds like a character from any one of a hundred comic books, horror movies or science-fiction shows. But this antagonist is real, and it affects the brains of tens of thousands of people every year.

It’s a mutant version of a protein called SOD1, and it causes amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Read more>>

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