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How an outsider bucked prevailing Alzheimer's theory, clawed for validation

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Re: How an outsider bucked prevailing Alzheimer's theory, clawed for validation

#31

Post by mtgx »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #23

Amyloid-beta is associated with sleep deprivation. This new research could suggest that sleep is an essential component of the immune system. If so, then the plaques it forms might be the brain’s last-ditch effort to protect itself from microbes, a sort of Spider-Man silk that binds up pathogens to keep them from damaging the brain. Maybe they save the brain from pathogens in the short term only to themselves prove t…

It's also similar to how LDL cholesterol starts plugging damaged arteries and most blame it for heart disease.

Re: How an outsider bucked prevailing Alzheimer's theory, clawed for validation

#33

Post by Lutzb »

iscrewyou wrote: post #16
WalterBright wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of Lockheed's Skunkworks. I've heard lots of businessmen say they're going to recreate skunkworks, but with improvements. The improvements, of course, make it not a skunkworks and these efforts never deliver skunkworks performance. Could the government create a skunkworks? Not likely, because they fought against Kelly Johnson constantly over how he ran it. I bet Paul Allen could have done it, because he ha…

I’m in the midst of listening to the Skunk Works audiobook. And it’s fascinating. It had been on my list of things to read but I just couldn’t wait. I bit the bullet and bought the audiobook. It’s worth every penny.

The book by Leo janos?

Re: How an outsider bucked prevailing Alzheimer's theory, clawed for validation

#34

Post by amelius »

rpedela wrote: post #7

One of things I like about the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is that they find great scientists and just fund them. The scientists can research whatever they want as long as they keep producing. I always wondered if a hybrid approach to funding would work well at the government level. The current, permission-based process would remain in place for new researchers to prove themselves, and then an HHMI-style p…

> The scientists can research whatever they want as long as they keep producing.

How is that different from (publication pressure in) academia?

Re: How an outsider bucked prevailing Alzheimer's theory, clawed for validation

#35

Post by rpedela »

amelius wrote: post #34
rpedela wrote: post #7

One of things I like about the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is that they find great scientists and just fund them. The scientists can research whatever they want as long as they keep producing. I always wondered if a hybrid approach to funding would work well at the government level. The current, permission-based process would remain in place for new researchers to prove themselves, and then an HHMI-style p…

> The scientists can research whatever they want as long as they keep producing. How is that different from (publication pressure in) academia?

There isn't a grant process as far as I know. They don't have to worry about money.

Re: How an outsider bucked prevailing Alzheimer's theory, clawed for validation

#36

Post by beagle3 »

neuromantik8086 wrote: post #22

This isn't a particularly surprising story considering the history of science. To give an example of how this sort of thing played out historically, Marshall Nirenberg was basically persona non grata (or at least dutifully ignored) at many scientific conferences prior to his postdoc's discovery of the codon for phenylalanine. At the time, he was working at the NIH, which was considered very low prestige by many conte…

Nirenberg had it easy, compared to Ignaz Semmelweis, Barbara McClintock, Dan Shechter and likely many others I am unaware of - who were shunned for many years.

The scientific method is awesome. The scientific community, not as much - although I admit I have no idea how a system with better false positive / false negative ROC will look.

Re: How an outsider bucked prevailing Alzheimer's theory, clawed for validation

#37

Post by iscrewyou »

Lutzb wrote: post #33
iscrewyou wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m in the midst of listening to the Skunk Works audiobook. And it’s fascinating. It had been on my list of things to read but I just couldn’t wait. I bit the bullet and bought the audiobook. It’s worth every penny.

The book by Leo janos?

Yes, him and Ben R. Rich.
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