Some organisms, such as the castor bean plant (Ricinus communis), produce substances that inhibit the synthesis of proteins (called translation) within a cell. (The plant, which is native to Africa, is not related to the species of bean plants with which you are likely more familiar.) A protein called ricin, produced within the castor seeds is an extremely potent inhibitor of protein synthesis. In fact, it is one of the strongest natural toxins produced. A single chewed seed can kill child! If the ricin were purified, it would take an amount equivalent to only a few grains of salt to kill an adult. Ricin kills cells by enzymatically cleaving covalent bonds within the large and small ribosomal subunits, rendering the protein-building factori ...

I have not given 'the best way to die' much thought yet, but apparently a leading doctor and the former editor of the prestigious British Medical Journal (BMJ) has claimed cancer is the best way to die.

Dr. Richard Smith believes that cancer provides opportunity to reflect on life before it ends is important and urges charities and the medical world to "stop wasting billions trying to cure cancer".

In a blog published in The BMJ, the doctor wrote that while most people tell him they would prefer a sudden death, he thinks that is very hard on the families of the deceased.

"The long, slow death from dementia may be the most awful as you are slowly erased, but then again when death comes it may be just a light kiss," he wrote.

"Death from organ f ...

Lots of animals play dead when they’re threatened, but this little hognose snake really knows how to commit to a role. Somebody get this guy a part on Broadway!





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The two marmosets - small, New World monkeys - had been a closely bonded couple for more than three years. Then, one fateful day, the female had a terrible accident. Her partner left two of their infants alone in the tree and jumped down to apparently comfort and mourn her. Humans mourn their dead, of course, and some recent studies have strongly suggested that chimpanzees do as well. This new observation suggests that mourning is more widespread among primates than previously thought.