As the nation's baby boomers grow older, Alzheimer's disease, an incurable age-related brain disorder, is becoming an urgent concern. About one in eight boomers -- 10 million people -- are expected to get Alzheimer's disease unless a dramatic scientific breakthrough occurs soon. As researchers race to find a way to prevent or treat Alzheimer's, health professionals are coming up with groundbreaking ways to improve the lives of people with dementia as well as their caregivers. Meanwhile, the federal government is implementing the first-ever National Alzheimer's Project Act, aimed at developing a coordinated national strategy for tackling the disease. But during a time of fiscal austerity, will the nation be willing -- or able -- to invest the billions of dollars needed to adequately fund costly scientific research and high-quality care for people with Alzheimer's?

Beth Baker is an award-winning freelance journalist in Takoma Park, Md., whose articles appear in numerous publications, including The Washington Post, AARP Bulletin, Ms., and BioScience, the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. She has received two National Mature Media Awards for her reporting on aging and media fellowships to study aging and cancer issues from, respectively, Case Western University and the National Press Foundation. Her books include Old Age in a New Age -- The Promise of Transformative Nursing Homes (Vanderbilt University Press, 2007). She is a former hospice volunteer.