Narrator: This is Science Today. One of the most unsettling aspects about Alzheimer's Disease is the fact no one can really feel immune to it. Dr. Lennart Mucke, a neurology professor at the University of California, San Francisco, says while some cases do have clear inheritance patterns, they represent just a small percentage.

Mucke: It can happen to absolutely everybody. And that's I think, a very important awareness because I believe that our mental faculties are probably one of our dearest possessions.

Narrator: Mucke is one of many researchers working towards better treatment of Alzheimer's Disease, but he says public activism is lacking.

Mucke: Some of the lack of that activism may come from this sort of resignation - well, you know people are old and you lose your memories and that's just how it is. But I think that with more and more people living to be ninety-five and a hundred and some of them are crisp and clear mentally and active. I think more and more people will realize that there really is no reason why they shouldn't be like that.

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.