Have you ever heard of a disease called Kuru? It was discovered in Papua New Guinea in the 1950s to be present among cannibal tribes. The symptoms of the disease itself are almost as frightening as how it was believed to be contracted. In the second stage of the disease the carriers are said to be sedentary, emotionally unstable and depressed. Yet they suffer from uncontrollable outbursts of laughter. The theory is that Kuru did not come from simple cannibalism but more likely from consumption of the human brain. The dysmorphism evident in the infection rates — kuru was...