Nullius in verba. You'd be well advised to take a skeptical view of every scientific paper -- especially those promoted by University PR departments. Besides,

Nullius in verba. You'd be well advised to take a skeptical view of every scientific paper -- especially those promoted by University PR departments. Besides, "it's air pollution's fault" was a throwaway statement by those UCLA gerontologists. It wasn't the focus of their study; it was simply an unsupported notion of what might explain the supposedly higher rate of Alzheimer's disease in Rome as opposed to Ancient Greece. (I write supposedly because they don't really have enough for a statistically valid conclusion. What they have is: "In the writings that have survived, the Greeks mentioned something like Alzheimer's once. The Romans mentioned it four times. Now what could account for this presumptive discrepancy? We'll assume that it could have been lead or dirtier air.")