was the root of kuru, as the symptoms (shuffling, uncontrollable laughing) were typical of that area of the brain. During an autopsy of a diseased brain, Gajdusek found plaque (microscopic) on many areas. He also discovered many other things that may have come from eating brains. After a long investigation of kuru, and as hundreds of people were dying from it, the phrase "slow virus" was brought about. Along with that, a mix between the words protein and infection was also created: prions. Scientists found that this was how kuru was spread. The brain has something called the blood-brain barrier which essentially blocks everything from entering the brain, save for a few thing. For instance, if you were to inject dye into the bloodstream, every organ would turn that color except for the brain due to the BBB. It is this barrier that makes it so difficult to medicate people for mental diseases such as Alzheimers and Parkinson's. It was hard for certain things to get it, and even harder for microbes (with the exception of syphilis and herpes). Though, proteins were one of the things that could pass through the barrier. And prions, being part protein, can thus make it through the barrier. Another illness that falls into the category of prions is Creutzfeldt-Jakob syndrome, a degenerative neurological disorder. Unrelated, after Gajdusek returned after his kuru investigations, he was revealed to be a pedophile after admitting to touching young boys that he had picked up as his children in Papua, New Guinea. Chapter 7: Sex and Punishment Harvey Cushing was obsessed with the pituitary gland. He sent his assistant, William Sharp, to retrieve this gland from a giant who had just died, among other things such as the heart, the lungs, and the brain. After retrieving the organs in a hurry, Sharp was brutally yelled at by Cushing because he had forgotten a part he hadn't even known existed. He was later forgiven, as Cushing still had his pituitary. Cushing was absolutely fascinated with the idea of mishaps in the pituitary gland. He often sought out circuses and freak shows in hopes that they would have a giant or a dwarf, and often stopped to talk with them about their lives and their pasts. One such man was one by the name of John who was a giant, a farmer from South Dakota, the man who Cushing's assistant de-organed