Gary Lynch

The myth of modern science, that it proceeds carefully, rationally, incrementally, building bit by bit from rock-solid foundations to impregnable fortresses of fact, comes unraveled in contemporary neuroscience. Fortresses, entire kingdoms of neuroscience have been built on what turn out to be frail premises that get swept away entirely when the next new thing comes along.

Lynch Lab sits between a toll road and the UC Irvine main campus, in an office park of indistinguishable low-rise, beige-on-beige stucco buildings. Neuroscientist Gary Lynch had moved his lab and office -- for a while, just a desk in a hallway -- numerous times during his Irvine career, often as the result of some feud or slight.

Reflecting in the spring of 2005 on his lab's recent successes, which he regarded as a culmination of decades of work, UC Irvine neuroscientist Gary Lynch said: "This will be a moment when all the tribes of neuroscience come to the same campfire." He was wrong. There was no reaction. Nothing. Initially, he couldn't even get a short paper on a crucial visualization experiment published.

When Dr. Gary Lynch talks, Wall Street listens. The engaging, world-renowned UC Irvine neuroscientist told reporters at a recent Washington science convention that European studies suggest his experimental drug Ampalex enhances memory in healthy people. He noted government plans to test it in Alzheimer's patients next year. Over the next two days, shares of Cortex Pharmaceuticals Inc., whose future rides on the Alzheimer's trials, more than doubled in price to $6.32.