scishark

Mad cow disease (also known as Bovine spongiform encephalopathy [bSE]) is a neurodegenerative, fatal affliction of cows. It’s caused by prions, which are proteins that are normally present in cows, but they have been mis-folded. Think of a paper clip as a prion, and its unwound form as a straight strip of metal is the original protein. The mishapen prions can also induce other normal proteins around them to become prions. Prions are not alive – they are errant proteins produced in an animal, much like cancer cells are regular human cells gone wrong. http://www.interestingscience.net/madcow/ Seems like mad cow is going to stay for a while

"Does zinc affect the symptoms of the common cold?" Only high quality studies were included wherein people were given zinc or a placebo, but neither they nor the scientists knew which until afterwards. The results of all the studies were combined, so, without doing any new experiments, we can aim for the best possible knowledge about whether something works or not. In this case, the results for just under a thousand otherwise healthy patients were used. http://www.interesti...mmon-cold-zinc/ Would you take zinc to improve recovery from the Common Cold?