A search for Toxoplasmosis on G-scholar reveals that this parasite is in fact a problem for immune compromised patients and infants. Although I do not think WebMD is a reliable source, another comment here cites them to indicate that infections are usually cleared up by our immune system. This appears to be plausible, but because the parasite enters cells, and can hide in a latent phase, your immune system may be unable to clear the infection permanently. Because the parasite can halt the cell cycle, it may be able to hide indefinitely. I would not be concerned about a latent parasite, but its re-emergence may become a problem if your immune system becomes compromised.
A correction to your statement that, according to wikipedia, the disease cannot be tested by blood sample. Wikipedia, in fact, stats that it can be tested by blood or other tissue, but only if the parasite is active (non-latent).
Regarding its effect on behavior, the parasite seems to increase dopamine levels and possibly inhibit fear response. Since the increased dopamine is caused by an enzyme made by the parasite, this probably only occurs during a full scale infection. The inhibition of fear may occur while the parasite is inactive, if the parasite is able to enter cells in your amygdala. I do not see this inhibition of fear as long-lasting, except perhaps in extreme cases.
One disclaimer, I grew up with a few cats, so I may have been, or am currently, infected. I cannot rule out that this parasite is manipulating me to write this comment. Now I'm off to find some cat pee. Can't get enough of that smell, mmmmmmmm.....
And why should we trust you (or Google etc) with our data? Perhaps you (they) will exploit our ignorance and manipulate our preferences?
Not everyone in the world can be assured their human rights and exposing personal information can lead to persecution. Therefore, there is a risk attributed to this data collection, at least for some. Not everyone is willing or able to take these risks.
While I can agree that this data may be useful for both customer and advertiser, its potential misuse should not be ignored. And when these networks deny the use of pseudonyms, they force their users to take (unnecessary) risks.
We all have tumors in our bodies, not cancer. Cancer is when the tumor metastasizes, and begins to grow out of control.
Perhaps instead of hoping for a silver bullet to cure cancer, determine when/if your body is full of tumors, and do everything you can to prevent them from accumulating any more DNA damage.
I think one of us may be confused about the definition of metastasis. From (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/metastasis) it appears that metastasis typically happens after a cancerous tumor has been around for a while, when some cancerous cells escape the tumor and start dividing elsewhere.
Thank you for linking to this interesting discussion on Reddit. Their discussion lacks a few key points.
First, inflammation is an important cause of cellular (and DNA) damage. The standard weapon used by your innate immune system is super-oxide, a free radical! Avoiding chronic infections is likely to be an important key to longevity, especially for those prone to inflammation.
Second, while "aging" is a natural mechanism by which your body defends against cancer, "aging" quickly is not the ideal way to prevent cancer.
Your cells will stop dividing when they have reached their Hayflick limit. This limit is not exactly caused by telomeres, but rather the lack of telomerase (a protein that lengthens telomeres). Active telomerase is necessary for a cell to become cancerous.
So the cell has its own built in mechanism to determine when it has divided too many times, as well as when it has accumulated DNA damage from external sources like UV or oxides. Your cells have "aged" when they have accumulated too much DNA damage! So aging, in this sense, is not a good way to prevent cancer. The aged body is filled with tumors that are near metastasis, and undergoes drastic changes (eg. reduction in hormones) to prevent cancer formation.
The only real way to prevent cancer is to stop cell division. This, of course, is not ideal. How would we grow to become an adult without cell division? How would we heal damaged tissue? The answer is actually in the growth pathways of mammals.
These people lack a gene (in a pathway) that is necessary for cancer to form. Knocking out genes in growth pathways in mice drastically reduces their cancer rates (the mice are also small). Want to prevent cancer? Stop growing!
This is completely unrealistic, of course. However, populations with limited activity in their growth pathways will be less prone to cancer. This extends to short people too, not just dwarfs.
Those dwarfs seem to get even less cancer than you would expect given the reduced number of cells.
Also, on a related note, there's Peto's Paradox about why cancer rates are similar across species despite vastly different sizes (mice, humans, whales).
I tried using this, but it left me with the impression that it was unprofessionally done.
1. The board is not correct. The black square must be in the left corner. While this may seem like a small quibble, it changes the patters so that squares like e4, which should be white, are now black. This makes it difficult to play.
2. There are apparently no openings programed into the computer. Since openings are so complex, simply using an algorithm to find good opening moves does not work well. So, this program will almost always start out with bad first moves.
Please keep in mind it was hacked together in 48h, so yes it's supposed to be unprofessionally done ;-) However we'll now calmly fix all the issues and continue improving it:
https://github.com/joshfire/chessathome/issues
Feel free to report more bugs, we love feedback :)
Interesting that they use this strategy. Essentially, high variance is good when the expected value of the game is negative. It increases the chances of success in a bad situation.
Unfortunately you are correct, we are not really sequencing the genome. We are simply reading short segments of DNA, and comparing that to a reference sequence to find point mutations (eg. changes from G to C). We cannot easily determine whether there are large-scale duplications with the present technology. Ironically, the older, more expensive tech was better at this.
There is so much variation missed by "genome sequencing" that it is no surprise to me that we can only explain a tiny percentage of heritable human variation with genetics.
The biggest problem with Wikipedia is not that entries about current politics may be biased by national/religious propaganda.
The real problem is when the political propaganda influences the scientific entries. For example here I loosely refer to entries on evolution and pharmacology.
But, perhaps Wikipedia handles this better than other encyclopedias?
True, but has it not always been the case that writers have tended to view the past through a lens shaped by their contemporary mores? When I studied history (we used Books -- it was that long ago) I was taught that the development of arguments about a historical thing was part and parcel of the knowledge of that thing (rather like the article suggests). The critical evaluation of historiography must take into account the prevailing attitudes of the time as well as any other political biases. Reading around helps to elucidate these, so crucially one never relies on a single source.
A correction to your statement that, according to wikipedia, the disease cannot be tested by blood sample. Wikipedia, in fact, stats that it can be tested by blood or other tissue, but only if the parasite is active (non-latent).
Regarding its effect on behavior, the parasite seems to increase dopamine levels and possibly inhibit fear response. Since the increased dopamine is caused by an enzyme made by the parasite, this probably only occurs during a full scale infection. The inhibition of fear may occur while the parasite is inactive, if the parasite is able to enter cells in your amygdala. I do not see this inhibition of fear as long-lasting, except perhaps in extreme cases.
One disclaimer, I grew up with a few cats, so I may have been, or am currently, infected. I cannot rule out that this parasite is manipulating me to write this comment. Now I'm off to find some cat pee. Can't get enough of that smell, mmmmmmmm.....
More technical wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii