That something, likely some kind of protein (not aluminum as was suspected back then), was blocking retrograde motion within axons, leading to reduced ability to support synaptic transmissions and causing ALS. I learned later that I was heading in the right direction, but that others were well ahead of me in the research. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurofibrillary_tangle
My father died from complications from ALS last year, 70 years old - he was only diagnosed with it a few months before he died, although his first symptoms appeared a little over a year before that.
Having been spared from most terminal illnesses, it was surprising that such an unknown and fast working illness exsited. I knew people could get sick and die, but I always imagined it would be something more ... well known, like cancer. Or perhaps a stroke or heart attack.
That we still have illnesses that we know so little about is surprising. What makes ALS so special?
We don't understand the brain well, and we understand how to make changes to it even less (at a very minimum, the blood-brain barrier makes things very difficult). As a result, all neurodegenerative diseases are extremely troublesome to fight.
