Must reads

• An August 13, 2013 Stanford.edu post announced that a new Stanford University School of Medicine study has found that "The steady accumulation of a protein in healthy, aging brains may explain seniors’ vulnerability to neurodegenerative disorders." According to the release, "The study, published Aug. 14 in the Journal of Neuroscience, reveals that with advancing age, a protein called C1q, well-known as a key initiator of immune response, increasingly lodges at contact points connecting nerve cells in the brain to one another. Elevated C1q concentrations at these contact points, or synapses, may render them prone to catastrophic destruction by brain-dwelling immune cells, triggered when a catalytic event such as brain injury, systemic infection or a series of small strokes unleashes a second set of substances on the synapses." Also reported on by HealthDay Reporter. 
• An August 13, 2013 Associated Press (via the San Francisco Chronicle) article reported that "Senator Tammy Baldwin said Tuesday she plans to sponsor legislation that would strengthen America's commitment to research, science and innovation." According to the article, "The Wisconsin Democrat said she grew concerned after hearing Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, bemoan a decade of funding reductions along with this year's sequestration cuts that slash $1.5 billion from the NIH budget. Continued cuts would disproportionately affect younger researchers, putting an entire generation of new scientists at risk, Baldwin said."