Prion Discovery Gives Clue To Control Of Mass Gene Expression (Medical News Today) The discovery in common brewer's yeast of a new, infectious, misfolded protein -- or prion -- by University of Illinois at Chicago molecular biologists raises new questions about the roles played by these curious molecules, often associated with degenerative brain diseases like "mad cow" and its human counterpart, Creutzfeldt-Jakob. [News Source]

You’d be mad, too, if they called you “Bossie” (Everett Herald) Say it with me: Bovine spongiform encephalopathy: To protect against mad cow disease, the federal government has permanently banned from slaughter "downer cows," cattle too sick to stand on their own. [News Source]

Government bans `downer’ cows from food supply (The Washington Times) The government on Saturday permanently banned the slaughter of cows too sick or weak to stand on their own, seeking to further minimize the chance that mad cow disease could enter the food supply. [News Source]