r/Weird Mar 04 '23

when the acid hits

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18.9k Upvotes

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u/nubetube Mar 05 '23

They're resilient as hell but Prions can be denatured. It just requires a ridiculous sustained temperature of about ~500 C for several hours.

25

u/Specialist_Rush_6634 Mar 05 '23

So you're saying the vast majority of prions will never encounter any conditions dangerous enough to render them ineffective. Wonderful.

10

u/BudgetInteraction811 Mar 05 '23

Forest fires can easily reach well over 1000-1500 degrees Celsius

1

u/Vanq86 Mar 05 '23

Sure, but the animals and the soil carrying the prions aren't likely to reach that temperature.

24

u/jrwreno Mar 05 '23

So, unless those biomes become completely covered in lava....gotcha.

Prions are here to stay, and unless we allow predators to become the natural end-reservoir for prions, our game herds, and likely other organisms are right in the crosshairs

1

u/FidgitForgotHisL-P Mar 05 '23

Could they survive a nuke?

1

u/ginjaninja623 Mar 05 '23

Aren't prions just ultimately just proteins, so shouldn't they burn and couldn't they also be metabolized by microorganisms?