New Guinean Cannibals Evolved Resistance To Mad Cow-Like Disease

Members of a tribe in Papua New Guinea has evolved resistance to a affliction similar to mad cow disease (called Creutzfeldt Jakob disease, or CJD, in people). How did they do it? Cannibalism, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine. The Papua New Guinea variant is called kuru, and it was a disaster there.