Proteins are made of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sometimes with sulfur and maybe traces of other chemical elements. Probably, none of these belong to the metal groups of chemical elements. At the most, distinctive protein molecules are made of no more than 6 different chemical elements. Contrasting the 5 distinct bases of genes: cytosine, thymine, and uracil as pyrimidines and adenine and quanine as purines; proteins are made of much simpler components of fundamental atoms. Nonetheless, different combinations and proportions of these 6 distinct elements are responsible for millions and billions of different physiological functions. A large protein molecule mixed with acid breaks apart into smaller molecules called amino acids. There are about 80 different amino acids in the biosphere of which only 20 commonly take parts in cell activities of the human body. On average each large protein molecule contains 500 amino acids (many share the same chemical structures). Their linear combinations are that of linear permutations such that for 3 given amino acids A, B, and C there are 6 permutations which represent 6 different protein molecules: ABC, ACB, BAC, BCA, CAB, and CBA. Each has distinctive body functions. For 10 amino acids the permutations is the factorial of 10 (10!) or simply the product of 10x9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1=3 628 800 and 20!=2 432 902 008 176 640 000. On the other hand, circular, twisted, folded, or closed loops permutations would at the least double the number of permutations since clockwise and anticlockwise chirality become differentiably important. These represent million billions different protein molecules corresponding to million billions different physiological functions.

Some of these proteins could be hypothesized as the intelligence prions whose sole functions are to boost the intelligence quotient of an individual human being or an animal. In addition to their human capacity and potential, more or less of these prions can be found in chimpanzees, dolphins, dogs, cats, and other animals showing semblance of intelligence. The viruses that are made completely of prions would then represent the most intelligent living or nonliving things.