Internet Hoaxes, Australian Heat Waves, and Alzheimer's Hopes: NOVA Next Week in Review

This Week’s NOVA Next Feature Article

Recent studies of Alzheimer’s earliest stages suggest we may finally be closing in on successful treatments. NOVA Next contributor Mo Costandi reports on new developments in Alzheimer’s research that couldn’t come at a better time.

In other news from NOVA and around the web:

The Amazon is being fertilized by the remains of ancient fish from Africa. Our planet is interconnected in myriad other ways. Watch “Earth From Space” streaming online to learn more.
“The world’s species are disappearing as much as 1,000 times faster than the rate at which species naturally go extinct.”
Meteorologists are hunting for sprites in the mesosphere. Learn more about this mysterious phenomenon with “At the Edge of Space,” streaming online .
4 multiverses you might be living in. New video by Greg Kestin and companion blog post by Charles Choi.

Plaques that build up between neurons are a hallmark of Alzheimer's.

Lies have longevity on the internet.
Loss of ice from West Antarctica between 2009 and 2012 caused a dip in the region’s gravity field .
A computer analysis has shown that Australia’s 2013 heat wave was a direct result of greenhouse gas emissions.
Steven Pinker discusses his favorite science writers, what he read as a child, and what he thinks the president should read. Check out Steven Pinker’s profile on NOVA’s Secret Life of Scientists .
Earth lost 50% of its wildlife in the past 40 years.
Losing your sense of smell predicts death in five years, a new study says.
Undulatus asperatus could be the first addition to the World Meteorological Organization’s International Cloud Atlas since cirrus intortus made the cut in 1951.

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Classify clouds and learn how they form with NOVA Labs’ Cloud Lab .
Anthrax, a deadly pathogen, manipulates the environment to attract vulnerable hosts.
Fast Company interviews NOVA Labs’s digital content producer Alex Rosenthal about how to make cybersecurity tactics accessible to children.
For the first time, researchers have actually mapped out HIV’s origins and its meteoric rise. Almost a century later, we still don’t have a cure .
A cyberattack this summer on JPMorgan Chase compromised more than 76 million accounts .
Pharmaceuticals found in low levels in wastewater-irrigated produce .
The Ebola epidemic is, in fact, stoppable.
The Moon might have a giant volcanic vent system .