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From: dmark@acsu.Buffalo.EDU (David Mark)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.med
Subject: Re: What ever happened to PRIONS ???  (scrapie, C-J, BSE)
Message-ID: <13163@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
Date: 12 Nov 89 22:00:06 GMT
References: <23936@cup.portal.com>
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Reply-To: dmark@autarch.acsu.buffalo.edu (David Mark)
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In article <23936@cup.portal.com> mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes:

>SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN published an article.  What is the current status
>of prions?  Has the theory been discredited or what?

Just a comment on the name.  The name "Prion" is unfortunate, since that is
the common English name of a group of southern hemisphere pelagic birds,
related to petrels.  "Prions" are also know as "whale-birds", and 
apparently used to hang arong whales and eat the krill and other
plankton that the whales injure or otherwise stir up.

David Mark
dmark@cs.buffalo.edu