Welcome to Quantum Magazine's podcast.

Each episode, we bring you stories about developments in science and mathematics.

I'm Susan Vallett.

Before we begin, we want to acknowledge that this is the 200th episode of the Quanto Science Podcast.

Whether you've been with us since our first episode seven years ago, or if this is your

first time, thanks so much for listening.

And if you like this podcast, check out the other podcasts from Quantum Magazine, like

The Joy of Y and The Joy of X, both hosted by Stephen Strogetz, with a new season of the Joy of

Y coming up in 2023. The aging brains of people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other neurodegenerative

diseases have telltale aggregates of proteins in or around their neurons.

How these protein clumps might be harming the neurons is often still unclear, but they are

hallmarks of the conditions.

And until now, they have been associated almost exclusively with elderly brains. That's next.

Quantum Magazine is an editorially independent online publication

supported by the Simon's Foundation

to enhance public understanding of science.

A recent study by a team of Stanford University researchers suggests that protein aggregation may be a universal phenomenon in aging cells.

It could be involved in many more diseases of aging than was suspected.

Their discovery points to a new way of thinking about

what goes wrong in cells as they age, and potentially to new ways of staving off some

consequences of the aging process. Della David is a researcher on aging at the Babraham Institute

in Cambridge, England, who wasn't part of the study.

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