A prion is Select one: a. able to be effectively killed by administration of antibiotics, b. a normally occurring protein that, when misfolded, causes disease, d. a highly contagious virus.

Prions are fascinating entities in the realm of biology! They are indeed normally occurring proteins that, when misfolded, can induce other proteins to also misfold, leading to a cascade of disastrous effects in the brain and nervous system. This peculiar behavior is what makes prion diseases, such as mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, so challenging to treat! Interestingly, prions are notoriously resilient; they can withstand heat and even traditional methods of sterilization that would normally kill bacteria and viruses. This resilience has significant implications for public health, especially in handling infected materials. It’s a wild world of microscopic mischief!