(NYT) – Since the days of Dr. Alzheimer himself, there has been a dream that severe senility might have an explanation — and a cure. The search for both has never been more urgent.

After August H. died, Pick’s team examined his brain, dividing it into sections and weighing them and checking for abnormalities. The brain seemed essentially normal except for signs of decay, or atrophy, in one self-contained place: the left temporal lobe.

This was quite likely the first recorded moment that a scientist, staring at a piece of brain tissue, saw dementia as a problem to be understood and solved, rather than a natural, unavoidable part of aging. (Read More)