The Agenda

© Karin Pierre / Institut de Physiologie, Unil, Lausanne

N IS FOR NEURO » November is neuroscience month, both in our pages (A Potent Protein), and in Washington DC. On the 15th, attendees of the 38th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience will gather to hear the latest on their fields. Organizers are expecting more than 30,000 people this year. For more, visit http://www.sfn.org/am2008.

NOVEL DISORDER » 102 years ago this month, Alois Alzheimer described a patient with trouble with speech and memory. When she died, Alzheimer performed an autopsy, and noticed remarkable changes to the brain. The scientific understanding of Alzheimer's disease has improved, but we are still searching for answers, including from children with related disease Niemann-Pick C, described in "Twin Disorders".

NOTABLE NEWS » Authors Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson team up once again to pen The Superorganism, a book about social insects such as ants, bees, and wasps. The Pulitzer Prize-winners stage the "superorganism" between organism and entire species, consisting of a colony of individuals that coexist in complex ways. The book, published by Norton, releases this month (http://tinyurl.com/3n8kdm).

NEW REASONS TO CELEBRATE » Mme Curie would have turned 140 years old November 7, and Charles Darwin released his On the Origin of Species 149 years ago this month. (Each copy sold for 15 shillings.) Next year is a big one for Darwin: February marks his 200th birthday, and next November will be the 150th anniversary of his most famous book. Stay tuned for our coverage.