Charles Piller

And so what he was doing when he kind of stumbled on the study and was looking at its images is that he realized that there were some big questions about whether these images were improperly changed. And so I remember the first conversation that Schrag and I had about the images in this seminal paper that had appeared in the journal Nature.

And so what he was doing when he kind of stumbled on the study and was looking at its images is that he realized that there were some big questions about whether these images were improperly changed. And so I remember the first conversation that Schrag and I had about the images in this seminal paper that had appeared in the journal Nature.

Now, you remember I said that the journal I work for, Science, is one of the preeminent scientific journals. Nature also is kind of its counterpart. Science and Nature are two journals that are often thought of in the same light as being the most important general science journals out there. And so to get an article into Nature means that you're really hitting

Now, you remember I said that the journal I work for, Science, is one of the preeminent scientific journals. Nature also is kind of its counterpart. Science and Nature are two journals that are often thought of in the same light as being the most important general science journals out there. And so to get an article into Nature means that you're really hitting

something really important and potentially could have a lot of influence. And this study had enormous influence. It was one of the most cited and discussed studies in Alzheimer's disease for a very long time. And The way the experiment went was this. They extracted these proteins from the brains of these genetically engineered mice.

something really important and potentially could have a lot of influence. And this study had enormous influence. It was one of the most cited and discussed studies in Alzheimer's disease for a very long time. And The way the experiment went was this. They extracted these proteins from the brains of these genetically engineered mice.

They refined just one little segment of the protein, something they called amyloid beta star 56, their star protein. They injected it into rats, and rats began to show the apparent symptoms of memory loss that they compared to memory loss of Alzheimer's disease.

They refined just one little segment of the protein, something they called amyloid beta star 56, their star protein. They injected it into rats, and rats began to show the apparent symptoms of memory loss that they compared to memory loss of Alzheimer's disease.

So what you had was the first kind of cause-effector relationship of a particular substance towards Alzheimer's disease, albeit in animals, but still something that really inspired the science. Now, Why was it so important? Why was it so pivotal? If you don't mind, Dylan, what I'd like to do is go back more than 100 years to tell kind of the story of the disease. How did we get here?

So what you had was the first kind of cause-effector relationship of a particular substance towards Alzheimer's disease, albeit in animals, but still something that really inspired the science. Now, Why was it so important? Why was it so pivotal? If you don't mind, Dylan, what I'd like to do is go back more than 100 years to tell kind of the story of the disease. How did we get here?

Why was this a meaningful part of the scientific picture? So the reason is that Alzheimer's disease was first described in 1906 by the German scientist Alzheimer, namesake of the disease. And it involved... When he did... an examination of brain tissue from one of his patients who had died with terrible dementia. And this brain tissue showed these two kinds of really obvious proteins.

Why was this a meaningful part of the scientific picture? So the reason is that Alzheimer's disease was first described in 1906 by the German scientist Alzheimer, namesake of the disease. And it involved... When he did... an examination of brain tissue from one of his patients who had died with terrible dementia. And this brain tissue showed these two kinds of really obvious proteins.

One was this amyloid protein that I mentioned before, the so-called sticky plaques that listeners may be familiar with that are regarded as a classic sign of the disease. And another protein that is called tau, which is called the tangles because it looks like kind of tangled string and it resides within the nerve cells of the brain.

One was this amyloid protein that I mentioned before, the so-called sticky plaques that listeners may be familiar with that are regarded as a classic sign of the disease. And another protein that is called tau, which is called the tangles because it looks like kind of tangled string and it resides within the nerve cells of the brain.

So this combination of plaques, tangles, and dementia was defined and described as Alzheimer's disease. And so what happened for many decades after that was honestly not that much. And the reason it was not that much was that this disease is a disease of old people, basically. primarily old people. Very, very few people get it in their younger years.

So this combination of plaques, tangles, and dementia was defined and described as Alzheimer's disease. And so what happened for many decades after that was honestly not that much. And the reason it was not that much was that this disease is a disease of old people, basically. primarily old people. Very, very few people get it in their younger years.

And consequently, because of simple demographics, for many decades after 1906, there weren't really that many people living into their 70s, 80s, 90s, and beginning to show the symptoms of dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease. So while it was a well-known syndrome, it was not an important disease.

And consequently, because of simple demographics, for many decades after 1906, there weren't really that many people living into their 70s, 80s, 90s, and beginning to show the symptoms of dementia associated with Alzheimer's disease. So while it was a well-known syndrome, it was not an important disease.

But come the 50s, 60s, 70s, when gigantically important developments in medicine like vaccines, antibiotics, remedies for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, all of these things suddenly became prevalent in our medical practice and people began to understand better how to treat them and lifespans increased dramatically. Consequently, we had a lot more old people and those old people

But come the 50s, 60s, 70s, when gigantically important developments in medicine like vaccines, antibiotics, remedies for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, all of these things suddenly became prevalent in our medical practice and people began to understand better how to treat them and lifespans increased dramatically. Consequently, we had a lot more old people and those old people