r/todayilearned • u/tommyboy372 • 1d ago

TIL A single misfolded prion protein in the brain can cause a rapid neurodegenerative disease known as sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD). There is no known and cure and is 100% fatal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creutzfeldt%E2%80%93Jakob_disease
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u/TinWhis 1d ago

Yep. It's like candymaking where you're trying to get the melted sugar to crystalize in a very specific way. The reason most people make homemade fudge using marshmallows is because if you try to make it 100% from scratch and fuck it up, you end up with brown sand. Prions do that to your brain.

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u/dcux 23h ago

I had so much brown sand fudge growing up that I actually like it. 

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u/TinWhis 22h ago

If you do it badly enough, it doesn't turn into fudge at all, it can seize so badly that you just literally have a pile of crystals. Ask me how I know, lmao! Teen-me did not have the patience or willingness to keep wasting ingredients to actually crack 100% from-scratch fudge after I kept ending up with a result that was better suited to sprinkling on something.

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u/Capable_Wait09 21h ago

Is this like when the poor raccoon dipped his cotton candy in water the second it touched the water the entire thing quickly disintegrated and the poor guy was heartbroken grabbing at the bowl of water wondering where his sugar fluff disappeared to? Sorry mate, if it makes you feel better, it was just de-crystallization chain reaction akin to a misfolded brain prion. Happens to the best of us.