How Mad Cow Disease Works

Once in a while, there will be reports of mad cow disease, scientifically known as Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease in humans. But unlike most deadly diseases, this isn't caused by a virus, a bacteria, or chemicals leading to cancer. It's caused by prions.

How do prions work?

Well the first question we need to explore what proteins are, and how they work. Proteins are microscopic structures in your body's cells that do all kinds of things simply by their shape alone. Sometimes proteins can be structural proteins, which would be like the bricks holding up your house or the legs holding up your chair. Without it, your cells would collapse. Sometimes proteins can be enzymes, which automatically change different proteins without wearing itself out. It's like a hammer that no one needs to control, or one of those automatic vacuum cleaners. Other proteins are transport proteins, which are the doors to your cells. Unlike your house's doors, however, they don't let everything in. Most proteins only let certain molecules inside, and thank goodness they do, because otherwise your cell would be a mess. Finally, there are receptor proteins and signaling proteins, where the signaling protein touches the receptor protein and makes things happen in the cell, just like when your finger hits the button on the remote control, and the TV turns on. 

So let's review here:

It's Raining Gold?

A new study suggests that the gold on our planet came from space

The study sug­gests gold, plat­i­num, pal­la­di­um and re­lat­ed el­e­ments found in the crusts and man­tles of Earth, the Moon and Mars ar­rived as part of im­pact­ors the size of small plan­ets.

Atoms are created from the fusion in stars, and when the really big ones inevitably explode via supernova, they scatter their atoms across the universe. Anything from hydrogen to the really heavy stuff like iron is thrown across the galaxy, and make up the contents of everything on our planets - including life itself.

But iron, for reasons spelled out in the article, ends up comprising the core of our planet Earth. Gold is about as heavy as iron, as opposed to carbon. So the scientists believe that the gold in on, or close to, the surface of our planet had to come pretty recently.

Check out the explanation here.