Alzheimer's Research Bogged Down By Scientific Orthodoxy

I found some points raised in the Science Alert article, "Alzheimer's May Not Actually Be a Brain Disease, Reveals Expert," to be of note. The author notes that current theories concerning the cause of Alzheimer's (and possible treatments) is that it is caused by the formation of brain-damaging clumps of this mysterious protein called beta-amyloid, with the author adding: "In fact, we scientists have arguably gotten ourselves into a bit of an intellectual rut, concentrating almost exclusively on this approach, often neglecting or even ignoring other possible explanations." This, even though, "In July 2022, Science magazine reported that a key 2006 research paper, published in the prestigious journal Nature, which identified a subtype of brain protein called beta-amyloid as the cause of Alzheimer's, may have been based on fabricated data." And a drug that was developed on this research seems to have contradictory results.

    The author obviously has a bone to pick with the old approach because he is part of a group of researchers that believe that Alzheimer's is an auto-immune disease of the brain, but after explaining his theory, he notes other theories gaining ground recently. Thus, this seems to be yet another example of the reproducibility crisis: important scientific research shown to be extremely flawed or even fraudulent. And it shows up another issue which is the loss of dynamism in science because the bad science (and the tenured professors that have built their careers around it) forces out competing theories and ideas, not because the old theories are better, but because those who support the old theories control the purse strings. (See my February 18, 2025, post: "The Corruption of Science"). 

Related:

• "As Jane Goodall Passes, New DNA Research Raises Doubts on Human, Chimp DNA Similarities"--The Washington Stand. The article notes that  in 1975, Science magazine published a paper entitled “Evolution at Two Levels in Humans and Chimpanzees,” by "pioneering" geneticist Mary Claire-King and evolutionary biologist Alan Wilson who reported that comparing aligning DNA from each species found 98-99% similarity. This 1 to 2% difference has been repeated in scientific journals and textbooks ever since. But recent research shows that the gap is actually 14 to 14.9%. But even here, the researchers tried to cover up the large difference:

One very peculiar thing about the research just published is that nowhere in the technical paper is this bombshell discovery clearly reported, and nowhere is it stated clearly that human and chimp DNA is some ~14 percent different. Even an explainer article in Nature — which usually do a great job of translating technical findings for the average scientist — does not mention this huge finding. You have to dig deep into the Supplementary Data to find it, and even there it is opaquely stated in technical jargon. 

• "‘Shut out’: Journal fires editor after publishing research refuting ‘warming climate’"--The College Fix. Basically, in 2024, Marty Rowland, a special editor at the American Journal of Economics and Sociology, permitted the publication of a paper entitled “Carbon dioxide and a warming climate are not problems.” CO2 may not be a problem, but apparently disagreeing with scientific orthodoxy is. The paper was peer reviewed and, although heavily criticized, no one has identified any problems with it, according to the article. 
• "Theranos scandal: the REAL story" (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3)--Alex Krainer.  Theranos, if you remember, was a bio-tech startup founded in 2003 by Elizabeth Holmes, daughter of Christian Rasmus Holmes IV, was a vice president at Enron, an energy company that later went bankrupt after an accounting fraud scandal and descendant of Charles Louis Fleischmann. Apparently because of his work at Enron, Christian Holmes later held executive positions in government agencies such as USAID (!), the EPA, and USTDA. Anyway, back to how the apple doesn't fall from the tree, Holmes claimed that Theranos had developed technology that would be able to perform an extraordinary variety of blood tests from just a single drop and do so cheaply. With the assistance of powerful people in government and finance, "Theranos raised more than US$700 million from venture capitalists and private investors, resulting in a $9 billion valuation at its peak in 2013 and 2014." But it was all a sham and the company eventually collapsed. "In 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Theranos, Holmes, and former Theranos chief operating officer (COO) Ramesh 'Sunny' Balwani with raising $700 million from investors through a fraud involving false or exaggerated claims about the accuracy of the company's blood-testing technology." My summary, above, is taken from Wikipedia. Krainer's digs more into the elites that backed the company which him commenting:

It is far more likely that Holmes was recruited to be the front-woman of Theranos while the project’s real power brokers remained behind the stage. Her real qualifications were her youth, unbridled ambition, lack of any scruples about deceiving her own employees, investors and the public, and her willingness to advance her goals over people’s lives. She also had that sense of her family’s greatness which might have enabled her to set aside all legal and ethical considerations in pursuing her grand mission. Another plus would have been her supposed fluency in Mandarin, since future health challenges were expected to come from China.