Saturday, November 30, 2019

Miltons Satan In Paradise Lost Essays - Fallen Angels, Satan

Milton's Satan In Paradise Lost Critics abroad have argued about who the hero is of John Miltons Paradise Lost: Satan, Adam or Christ, the Son? Since Miltons overall theme stated in the opening lines of Book I is to relate Mans first disobedience and to justify the ways of God to men, Adam must be regarded as the main hero. John M. Steadman supports this view in an essay on Paradise Lost: It is Adams action which constitutes the argument of the epic. Steadman continues: The Son and Satan embody heroic archetypes and that, through the interplay of the infernal and celestial strategies, Milton represents Satans plot against man and Christs resolution to save him as heroic enterprises. Christ and Satan are therefore epic machines. (268-272) Although Satan may be an epic machine, he is best portrayed as the tragic anti-hero of Paradise Lost or, at the very least, a main character who possesses the stature and attributes which enable him to achieve tragic status. In the Greek tradition, the essential components of tragedy are admiration, fear and pity for the hero, who has to display a tragic weakness or flaw in his character, which will lead to his downfall. It might be argued that the flaws in Satans character are such that we should feel no admiration, fear or pity for him, yet he can be seen to inspire these emotions. Satans tragic flaws are pointed out in Book I. They are envy, pride, and ambition towards self-glorification. Satans pride, in particular, is stressed throughout Paradise Lost. In accordance with epic convention, Satan is frequently qualified by Miltons use of the word proud. Virgil used the same device in his epic the Aeneid, in which the name of Aeneas rarely appears without being preceded by pious. Th e most striking visual example of Satans main weaknesses appears in Book IV (89-90) during Raphaels narrative to Adam regarding the battles in Heaven, Raphael refers to Satan as the proud/Aspirer. Proud at the end of one line and Aspirer at the beginning of the next gives equal emphasis and impact to Satans pride and ambition and it is implied that, in Satan, the two characters are inseparable and of equal importance. Milton, in fact, defended his use of blank verse as a suitable vehicle for epic poetry, as opposed to the frequently favored heroic couplet. How then, does Satan inspire the feelings of admiration, fear and pity necessary to a tragic figure? Milton was, undoubtedly, conscious that he was in danger of portraying Satan as too much of a heroic figure and made efforts to belittle him through the use of unflattering imagery, and by highlighting his less complimentary characteristics. Nonetheless, our emotions are still fired. Our first encounter with Satan and his rebel hos ts occurs in Book I when they are recovering from the shock of having been expelled from heaven by the Son after three days of fighting the angels of God. Despite the defeat he has suffered, Satan gains our admiration by displaying resilience in quickly coming to terms with the change in his circumstances, in remustering his forces and organizing the building of his palace, Pandemonium. At the same time he demonstrates his determination not to be defeated and shows true qualities of leadership, persuasively arguing that there is still hope for battle and victory. Satan is convincing in his first speech to Beelzebub, his chief partner in crime, as he declares: What though the field be lost? All is not lost; the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield: And what is else not to be overcome? That glory never shall his wrath or might Extort from me. (I. 105-111) The language here is particularly powerful and the lines are extremely weighted, underlining Satans resolution. He similarly instills renewed resolve in his followers to challenge God and hope of regaining their former state, claiming that they are now better placed to contend because there is not fear of division in their own ranks (II.11-42). He then gives his supporters the opportunity to speak their minds as to whether to engage in open warfare or in guile to achieve their end; although ultimately

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Should Public Transport be Free of Charge

Should Public Transport be Free of Charge Free Online Research Papers Every one of us probably used public transport once in his lifetime. If it was a train a bur or a subway, we have to pay for it, but is that really necessary? It is a theme, which is often discussed, but I am convinced that if public transport is free we would have a better world. It should be free of charge to give everyone the opportunity to get to their destination. It is true that many of us would not prefer to take public transportation if given a choice, the more people we have taking buses, trains, and subways, the less people we have on the road. If more people would use public transport, we would have decrease traffic, noise pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The crucial fact is that we live in a society where cars are really required, but it would be so much better to use the bus or the train. For example, if I need to go to the University I always take the train and the bus. So a lot more people would use public transport and just leave their cars home. All of us want a cleaner planet for our future and the future of our children. Furthermore there are a lot of people who do not have that much money to pay for public transport. I know a family back home, who always take the bike to get to the supermarket, which is 5 kilometers far away. They have a hard life and they do not have money to pay for the bus and this makes their life much harder. In addition people can easy get to their work with help of public transport, but especially driving by train is really expensive. So for example a man works 7 hours in a not well played job and into the bargain the work place is far away. So he has to pay that much money for the train, that it is more trouble than it ´s worth. What also must not be forgotten is that driving by train or bus helps the social connection and could also support a better atmosphere if it would be free. I have been to Australia and in Melbourne there are some busses and trains for free. This makes life their so much easier and you fell just better and you are happier, if you drive with a train which is for free. To sum up, you can see that there are a lot of considerable advantages for making public transport free. Of course we need a lot of money to realize this idea, but all in all it would be a better way of live, especially if we look in the future. We all can help to provide a better environment and that is important for the future. I am sure that if public transport would be free, a lot of people would use it and want to help for a better world for all of us. Research Papers on Should Public Transport be Free of ChargeLifes What IfsThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfTwilight of the UAWUnreasonable Searches and SeizuresBook Review on The Autobiography of Malcolm XNever Been Kicked Out of a Place This NiceGenetic EngineeringStandardized TestingThe Project Managment Office System

Friday, November 22, 2019

The National Popular Vote Plan to Bypass the Electoral College

The National Popular Vote Plan to Bypass the Electoral College The Electoral College system - the way we really elect our president - has always had its detractors and lost even more public support after the 2016 election, when it became apparent that President-Elect  Donald Trump might have lost the nationwide popular vote to Sec. Hillary Clinton, but won the electoral vote to become the 45th  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹President of the United States. Now, the states are considering the National Popular Vote plan, a system that, while not doing away with the Electoral College system, would modify it to ensure that the candidate winning the national popular vote is ultimately elected president. What is the National Popular Vote Plan? The National Popular Vote plan is a bill passed by participating state legislatures agreeing that they will cast all of their electoral votes for the presidential candidate winning the nationwide popular vote. If enacted by enough states, the National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. How the National Popular Vote Plan Would Work To take effect, the National Popular Vote bill must be enacted by the state legislatures of states controlling a total of 270 electoral votes - a majority of the overall 538 electoral votes and the number currently required to elect a president. Once enacted, the participating states would cast all of their electoral votes for the presidential candidate winning the nationwide popular vote, thus ensuring that candidate the required 270 electoral votes. (See: Electoral Votes by State) The National Popular Vote plan would eliminate what critics of the Electoral College system point to as the winner-take-all rule - the awarding all of a states electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in that state. Currently, 48 of the 50 states follow the winner-take-all rule. Only Nebraska and Maine do not. Because of the winner-take-all rule, a candidate can be elected president without winning the most popular votes nationwide. This has occurred in 4 of the nations 56 presidential elections, most recently in 2000.The National Popular Vote plan does not do away with the Electoral College system, an action that would require a constitutional amendment. Instead, it modifies the winner-take-all rule in a way its supporters say would assure that every vote will matter in every state in every presidential election. Is the National Popular Vote Plan Constitutional? Like most issues involving politics, the U.S. Constitution is largely silent on the political issues of presidential elections. This was the intent of the Founding Fathers. The Constitution specifically leaves details like how the electoral votes are cast up to the states. According to Article II, Section 1, Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress. As a result, an agreement between a group of states to cast all of their electoral votes in a similar manner, as proposed by the National Popular Vote plan passes constitutional muster. The winner-take-all rule is not required by the Constitution and was actually used by only three states in the nations first presidential election in 1789. Today, the fact that Nebraska and Maine do not use the winner-take-all system serves as proof that modifying the Electoral College system, as proposed by the National Popular Vote plan is constitutional and does not require a constitutional amendment. Where the National Popular Vote Plan Stands Currently, the National Popular Vote bill has been passed in a total of 35 state legislative chambers in 23 states. It has been fully enacted into law in 11 states controlling 165 electoral votes: CA, DC, HI, IL, MA, MD, NJ, NY, RI, VT, and WA. The National Popular Vote bill will take effect when enacted into law by states possessing 270 electoral votes - a majority of the current 538 electoral votes. As a result, the bill will take effect when enacted by states possessing an additional 105 electoral votes. To date, the bill has passed at least one legislative chamber in 10 states possessing 82 electoral votes: AR, AZ, CT, DE, ME, MI, NC, NV, OK, and OR. In The bill has been passed by both legislative chambers - but not in the same year - by the states of Colorado and New Mexico, controlling a combined 14 electoral votes. In addition, the bill has been unanimously approved at the committee level in the states of Georgia and Missouri, controlling a combined 27 electoral votes. Over the years, the National Popular Vote bill has been introduced in the legislatures of all 50 states. Prospects for Enactment After the 2016 presidential election, political science expert Nate Silver wrote that, since the swing states are not likely to support any plan that might reduce their influence over control of the White House, the National Popular Vote bill will not succeed unless the predominately Republican â€Å"red states† adopt it. As of September 2017, the bill has been fully adopted only by predominately Democratic â€Å"blue states† which delivered the 14 largest vote shares for Barack Obama in the 2012 Presidential Election.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Data Collection Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Data Collection Paper - Essay Example This is where good academic performance usually starts. However, as these students continue to blend with others or as they continue to dwell within the grounds of the academic institution, they encounter certain things that influence their thinking, their outlook and their attitude. In the case of academic performance, there are several factors that can affect students' attitude towards school. Some of these factors include peer pressure, family background or problems, school location or environment, the student's lifestyle and teachers, and other psychosocial reasons. There are also studies that show that ethnic differences can affect a students' attitude towards school. Professor Laurence Steinberg, in one of his publications, stated that ethnic differences causes students to have different beliefs or reactions regarding failing in school. Specifically, he cited Asians as believers that poor performance in school would have negative or unfavorable consequences. Furthermore, he exp lains the effect of peer pressure on a child. Results of his studies also show that a lot of American teens believe that people make fun of those who do well academically. This implies that they would rather not have high grades to avoid being laughed at. Majority of the students also expressed that they never talk about academics or school-related issues with their friends (Edsource Online, 1999). In relation to the g... This teacher factor means how the teacher deals with the students, the teacher's manner of teaching, the teacher's professional and casual relationship with the students, and other relevant and significant elements that might have an impact on the students' performance. This study aims to answer the following questions: 1. What are the factors that can affect a students' academic performance 2. What are the examples of "teacher factor" that have significant effects on a student's performance In addition, at the end of this study, solutions on how to minimize the negative effect of "teacher factor" on students' performance should be provided. Since the research will tackle the different factors, particularly the "teacher factor", that affects students' performance in school, results will be beneficial to other students of different educational level. Through this research, students will learn about how to avoid being affected by such factors, and therefore, begin to develop a more positive outlook about school and help them excel in class. Aside from the students, this research will also be of help to educational institutions by providing them with relevant information on how to improve and develop better relationships among the teachers and the students. This research can also serve as a reference for future researchers. This is going to be a descriptive research which will involve male and female high school students as respondents. The sampling technique to be used will be random sampling. This research will make use of a questionnaire as the data collection method. This will allow the researcher to have a larger sample size and, therefore, obtain more reliable and accurate results. This method is also less

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

The Feminist Critique and the Postmodern Challenge to Anthropology Essay

The Feminist Critique and the Postmodern Challenge to Anthropology - Essay Example Feminism, as an ideal, is the collection of movements, associations, groupings and or establishments that aim at defending, defining and establishing equality in the spheres of social rights, politics and the economy; this pertaining to women. In addition, the ideal promotes the creation and provision of equal opportunities for women in both education and also in employment. Thus, a feminist is a person who’s behavioral and belief systems are based on the ideal of feminism (Fruzzetti 39). From the afore-mentioned feminist movements, associations and groupings emerged the Feminist theory, which aimed at understanding the causes and reasons for the presence of gender inequality. This understanding was based on the examination of women lived experiences and social roles throughout history and into the contemporary 21st Century. From it emerged different theories that touched on a variety of disciplines; this so as to respond and subsequently address issues such as the social cons truct of gender and sex. Some earlier forms of the theory received criticism for their taking into consideration only educated, white middle-class perspectives. As a result, of this criticism, was the creation of multi-culturalist and/ or ethnically-specific forms of the theory (Cott 73). Feminists campaign on the platform of ‘Women’s Rights’ – bodily integrity, reproductive rights (including access to abortion and contraceptives), women’s suffrage, equal pay, right to property and entry into contracts (contract law), and also voting. They seek to protect girls and women from domestic violence, sexual assaults and harassments among other violations. Due to its radical nature, this ideal has attracted its share of both criticism and blessings; this in the form of pro-feminism and anti-feminism ideologies. Feminism and Anthropology As a result of the feminist critique to anthropology, the approach – Feminist anthropology – emerged. It so ught to study cultural anthropology and correct the perceived andro-centric bias within the field. Its origin can be traced to early anthropologists such as E.E. Evans-Pritchard and James Frazer, who both displayed much interest in the notions of marriage and kinship. Women would thus, always appear in their ethnographies. Henrietta Moore, who is a prominent theorist in (the school of thought of) feminist anthropology, though of the opinion that women had been included in anthropological research and theory, was of the view that the problem was not the presence of women in anthropology, but in its representation, interpretation and understanding (Bratton10). According to her, it is how women are included in anthropology that matters. Thus, the challenge, then, was to avail new critical analysis on the existing anthropological literature, including creation of new research that placed the ‘Woman’ in the centre of it. This led to the emergence of self-conscious feminist a nthropology in the 1970s; this as a series of challenges to the male-dominated and biased anthropology. Rayna Rapp, in her work - Toward an Anthropology of Women (1975), was one of the earliest contributors to this emerging school. She argued that women and men experience gender differently; this in reference to the myriad of social markers. The experiences of women were in themselves a legitimate subject for

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Globalisation Is A Trend Which Tends To Benefit The Rich And Hurt The Poor Essay Example for Free

Globalisation Is A Trend Which Tends To Benefit The Rich And Hurt The Poor Essay Globalisation was initiated in the early centuries as a way of integrating the world of economists, business and political activities which were focussed on cost associated protection. This resulted from the idea of declining international economic integration. This gave birth to several international institutions that were supposed to oversee international trade by removing the barriers to trade. It is thus a process that aimed to be beneficial to all people within a country and in the whole world. However, globalisation is nowadays involving many others activities which are multivariate in approach. It involves economics, social and political dimensions. Globalisation is therefore having various aspects which are affecting the world in different ways. Such aspects include looking for the markets for the products and access to a range of foreign products which are required for their productions. Since the inauguration of globalisation, the industrialist system has recorded an unbelievable number of achievements. The industrial revolution has fetched a new standard of prosperity, shape and comfort to the people of the world over. According to many economists, these accomplishments have been achievable due to a novel institutional framework that supports competitive markets, political freedoms and universal education encouraging objective scientific interactions and allowing social and political criticism, and provides safety to reduce risk and deprivation. Globalisation has led to reducing scarcity and has created a catastrophe of sustainability as susceptibility to the poor to consume exceeds of his capacity and to conserve diversity and control wastes is no longer there. Removing national barriers has exposed rich and ill-equipped peoples to the threats as well as the benefits of free trade and competitive markets. Globalization has affected the poor in communications by reducing cultural diversity and exposed everyone to the temptations of an often selfish and slight international industry. In addition, the demands of competition in the capitalist setting and transformation of workers has implications for stress-related illnesses, family breakdown, and the loss of long-established values of family team spirit which adds cost to the poor. (Pistor, 1997) The internationalization of the market has a direct impact in most important sectors which are mostly dominated by the poor. Mostly, the poor are kept in those sectors which are widely associated with the production but not in the distribution. The poor producers do not benefit from globalisation as the middle class men always makes the best of the un informed poor men in the globalise world. Thus the globalise trade in agricultural and livestock commodities from the poor are lowly paid for. This makes such sectors to be lagging behind in terms of industrialization. By commercializing their natural products, either raw or semi processed, they can achieve a balance of trade superfluous. However, it is in the agricultural markets that rich countries have been stubborn in putting favourable policies for the free trading conditions. (Pistor, 1997) While it is correct that globalization supports free trade among countries on an international level, there are also negative results because some countries try to save their national markets. The main export of poorer countries is usually agricultural goods. It is difficult for these countries to compete with stronger countries that subsidize their own farmers. Because the farmers in the poorer countries cannot compete, they are forced to sell their crops at much lower price than what the market is paying. Thus, mistreatment of foreign impoverished workers results. The worsening of protections for weaker nations by stronger industrialized powers has resulted in the exploitation of the people in those nations to become cheap labour. Due to the lack of safety, companies from powerful developed nations are able to offer workers enough salary to entice them to endure tremendously long hours and unsafe working conditions. The abundance of cheap labour is giving the countries in power motivation not to rectify the inequality between nations. If these nations developed into industrialized nations, the army of cheap labour would slowly disappear alongside development. With the world in this current state, it is impossible for the exploited workers to escape poverty. It is true that the workers are free to leave their jobs, but in many poorer countries, this would mean starvation for the worker, and possible even family members. (Sachs, 2005) Globalisation has led to the shift from manufacturing to service work. The low cost of offshore workers have attracted corporations to move production to foreign countries. The laid off unskilled workers are forced into the service sector where wages and benefits are low, but turnovers are high. This has contributed to the widening economic gap between skilled and unskilled workers. The loss of these jobs has also contributed greatly to the slow decline of the middle class which is a major factor in the increasing economic inequality in the whole world. Families that were once part of the middle class are forced into lower positions by massive layoffs and outsourcing to another country as technologies are bringing about globalisation are changing day by day. This also means that people in the lower class have a much harder time in climbing out of poverty because of the absence of the middle class as a stepping stone. (Sachs, 2005) Globalization is leading to the rise of contingent work. As globalization causes more and more jobs to be distributed overseas, and the middle class people’s declines, there is less need for corporations to hire full time employees. Corporations are less inclined to offer benefits such health insurance, bonuses, vacation time, shares in the company, and pensions, or reduce benefits, to part time workers. Most companies don’t offer any benefits at all. Even though most of the middle class workers still have their jobs, the reality is that their buying power has decreased due to decreased benefits. Job security is also a major issue with contingent work. Moreover, globalisation is weakening of labour union. The excess in cheap labour coupled with an ever growing number of companies in transition has caused a weakening of labour unions in the in the world. Unions lose their effectiveness when their membership begins to decline. As a result unions hold less power over corporations that are able to easily replace workers, often for lower wages, and have the option to not offer unionized jobs anymore. (Humphreys, 2000) On the hand, globalisation has in many ways helped the poor countries to come out of the dungeon of poverty. Through globalisation, poorer countries are given opportunities that allow them to trade freely without facing much challenging rules and regulations in trade transactions. Trade allows individuals to exchange goods and services. Hence, globalisation is helping in people who are poor to access these goods and services in their local markets at reduced prices. The reduction of costs on goods and services as results of globalisation enables the poor to have savings which perhaps would not have possible before. From the research sources, it is indicated that trade for many developing countries increased with the introduction of globalisation. The increase in trade was a bit varied from one country to another. This meant that the benefits of globalisation can be received unequally depending on a country trading power to another. (Sachs, 2005) The globalisation aspects have enabled capital movement hence financial assets have been moved across international borders. The poor benefit from such investments in many different ways. When there is capital investment in the poor areas, trade is opened up which allows people to be employed in such investment enterprises. This creates job opportunities in places which were once inflicted by few job opportunities. The earnings received by the employees are used to raise their living standards hence closing the gap between the poor and the rich. Through capital movement by globalisation aspects, business are opened which brings in foreign exchanges through taxation of some of goods which are entering the country. This helps the country to be self sufficient by replacing foreign aid. It gives transitions that lead to market economies. Multinational corporations which invest in any poor countries, they are found to be more of benefit than the local investors in such states. By comparison, the companies have been building factories and hiring workers from local communities. The employees hired have been found to be living in a more comfortable life as compared to their fellow counterparts in others local companies. This is because they are being well paid by the multinational companies as compared to the home country companies which lack adequate capitals and have low turn over. (Warwick, 2001) Due to globalisation, workers move to where jobs are located. Unskilled poor workers are then given the chances of moving to where unskilled labour is required and vice versa. That is the skilled workers also move to where more skilled labour is required. It has been proved beyond no reasonable doubt that wages communicates the demands for the labour required in a given country. Hence people move from places of low wages to places with higher remunerations. Previous results have shown numerous numbers of people are moving from either developing to developed countries or from under developed states to developing ones. This verifies that globalisation in not benefiting the rich and harming the poor. In fact, the participation in globalisation is making the poor to earn higher wages than those who are poor and do not take part in globalisation. Globalisation brings about competitions which the poor benefits very much than the rich. The rich being the investors are forced to improve in the quality of goods and services which the poor would always enjoy. Companies in competing environments provides better opportunities for qualified persons who in turn produces better services and quality goods in return for higher salaries. In addition, countries that are poor get the benefits of having their poor workers to travel abroad where they earn higher wages and then send the money back to the home countries. This money is pumped into the economy of the poor nation where many more people can get the daily breads and raise their living standards. (Sachs, 2002) Globalisation is spreading with technology. The poor is being given challenges to explore in the new technologies which are of vital importance in business investments. The installation of new equipment and technologies in poor countries are key factors to alleviation of poverty but not a way of impoverishing the poor to his dismal points. Such technologies with globalisation help the poor enhance his production methodologies, management techniques and all general mitigations of work. As I conclude, when the rich get richer and the poor becomes poor, it is not a result of globalisation but the fact is that the poor is in fear of embracing the new methods of globalisation for alleviation of poverty conditions. The perception of globalisation a way of exploiting technique of the poor has left many countries and people in poorer levels than they should be. (Humphreys, 2000) This is because the globalisation is helping people to realise the free movement of goods and services are comparatively much beneficial in terms of uplifting the living standards of the people rather than focusing on minute disadvantages of the trade. Wealthy countries are much concerned with the helping the poor through job provisions as well as aid disbursement to the poor one. The provision of the poor with aids has major impacts on their health of the poor as healthy people are able to perform better than unhealthy persons. Due to globalisation, the people leaving as poor people in the world have decreased considerable. People who are leaving earning less than two dollars are those who have despised the practices of globalisations as they are being faced with many problems. The percentages of the people in global countries are much lower than those in ant –globalisation sects. So globalisation has benefited both the rich and the poor. The rich has been in able to get market for his products and services. He has also been a position to get opportunities to invest for the future to enhance world production which benefits the whole world. The poor have more advantages in that the rich provides means to the poor through whom he can lift up his leaving standards and escape the poverty situation by learning the new technologies and exploiting them. (Sachs, 2005) Reference: Humphreys, M. (2000): Escaping the Resource Curse. Columbia University Press Sachs, J. (2005): The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time: Penguin Press Sachs, J. (2002): Resolving the Debt Crisis of Low-Income Countries Warwick, M. (2001): the Strategic Significance of Global Inequality: University of Chicago Press Pistor, K. (1997): The Rule of Law and Economic Reform in Russia. West view Press

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Prions : The Infectious Protein Agent :: Biology Mad Cow Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease

missing graphs What causes Mad Cow Disease? Prions. Prions are also behind other neurodegenerative diseases such as the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Kuru, Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease and some forms of fatal insomnia. These are all prions diseases that have been found to exist in humans. The prion disease for cattle is what we know as the Mad Cow Disease. Prions also exist in other animals such as sheep, mink, mule deer, elk, cats, and some others. So what's so special about prions? Unlike other neurodegenerative diseases that are caused by the misfolding of proteins, altered proteins, abnormal gene splicing, improper expression, or ineffective clearing of proteins which slowly leads to disease by accumulation, prions cause disease by acting as an infectious agent. One abnormal prion protein is enough to turn all the normal prion proteins present into itself. How do prions do that? Scientists are still unsure of how exactly one protein is capable of turning another protein into itself. Many experiments are conducted to help shed light on its mysterious capabilities. In this website, we hope to explain one of these experiments that involved the effect of pH on the structure of prion proteins. Wait...Prions? Prion Protein? Which is which? Prions is the name assigned to infectious protein agents. Prion protein (PrPC) is the normal cellular protein that can become an infectious agent. The Official Mad Cow Disease Home Page The prion is a newly discovered pathogen that is vastly different from the known pathogens of today; namely viruses and bacteria. Unlike the bacteria, no antibiotics can cure prions. They are not typical of a prokaryotic organism or a eukaryotic organism, all that is present in this pathogen is the protein PrPSc. This is the mutated form of the protein PrPC, which is encoded by a chromosomal gene. These two proteins differ in their spatial protein structures and their susceptibility to enzyme digestion. PrPC is completely destroyed in enzyme digestion, whereas PrPSc is resistant to any form of digestion.Viruses usually have nucleic acid, protein, and other constituents that aid in the creation of more progeny viruses. As far as prions are concerned, they multiply by infecting the PrPC protein and turning it into a complex such as itself, the PrPSc protein. Prions exist in multiple molecular forms whereas viruses exist in a single form with disti nct ultrastructural morphology.Another difference between the virus and the prion is that viruses almost always provoke an immune response in the host that it is infecting.