The Body Scientific

Most of the neurodegenerative diseases of aging were described a century or more ago and named after the physicians who described them — Alzheimer, Parkinson, or Huntington. Lou Gehrig disease was named after its most famous victim. We are little better at treating them now than when they were described. Parkinson’s disease has a treatment that mitigates the symptoms, but does not slow the course of the disease. The neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by gradual deterioration and death of neurons. They are a grim group; none of them has a cure. Why is that?

Normally, this column tries to explain the science behind important discoveries or diseases. It makes the case for rational approaches to life’s problems. But sometimes all that fair-mindedness can get a person down, especially during an election season, when assertion seems to be the going currency.

Autism is a difficult subject — the diagnosis is problematic and treatment has been limited. The incidence, for reasons known and unknown, has been increasing (see my column of June 4, 2012, available online at www.tricornernews.com). Many people at the least severe end of the autism spectrum have learned to be productive and to employ the way their minds work to advantage. But at its most severe, autism is a lifelong and devastating prospect for those affected and their families.

When I was a Ph.D. student in the late 1960s, a scientist determined the exact DNA sequence that encoded the plan for part of a protein. He and his team sequenced 23 bases of DNA and it took them a year. We thought it was marvelous in concept and execution — and it was.