Retro Virus

Inside the brain, proteins don’t stick around longer than a few minutes. And yet, our memories can hang on for our entire lifetime. Recently, an international collaboration of researchers discovered something strange about a protein called Arc. This is essential to long-term memory formation. What they found was that it has very similar properties to how a virus infects its host. Jeff and Anthony consider what life could have been like without the ability to remember.

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Today’s story was sent in by Keith Erik Bibbs: http://bigthink.com/philip-perry/our-memory-comes-from-an-ancient-virus-neuroscientists-say

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