Alzheimer's research -- and a new kind of spam email?

Long Suffering Spouse came late to the computer revolution. Anything she needed -- an email to be sent, an article to be found -- she asked me to get.

When she went back to school, though, to get her teaching certificate, she was forced to learn about email on her own. And then she learned about spam.

She would occasionally forward some of the junk emails to me. These were the ones that touted pills or other concoctions to enlarge... well, let's just say she doesn't have one and I do. "This must be for you," she would type into the forwarding message.

Thanks a lot, I thought to myself, wondering just exactly what she meant by this.

Now I think a new wave of spam email must be in the offing. This is based on a story I heard about coming from the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Chicago. A study was presented at that meeting that indicates scientists "may have learned why some people retain sharp minds and clear memories despite having the so-called brain plaques and tangles that are the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease."

What distinguishes these people? Apparently they have larger hippocampi, lobes on the left and right sides of the brain which are structures "vital to memory formation."

Yes, baby boomers, brace yourselves: The Nigerian generals' widows will now have to compete for space in your spam filter with miracle medicines designed to make your hippocampus huge.