Nun brains may help unlock secrets of Alzheimer's

clipped from www.cnn.com Two decades ago, Sister Treanor and 677 other members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame granted a young researcher's request to test them each year The mission: Tracking the progression of Alzheimer's disease and other age-related brain disorders The 61 surviving nuns recently completed their last round of intellectual and physical tests for the Nun Study, one of the world's most comprehensive neurological research projects One final sacrifice remains: When they die, their brains will be taken for further study, joining a collection of hundreds of other brains donated by the the nuns who died before them Snowdon's work already has produced interesting results, including a finding that people who challenge themselves intellectually can apparently delay or prevent the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms About half the nuns in the study developed Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia before they died, about similar to the general population It's such a cool study

Nun Study -- valuable research into aging. And it's also okay with the Pope!