"As far as Alzheimer's is concerned, all this is something new to try out, " says Pepys.

FORBES: A New Drug To Treat Alzheimer's?

Pepys' drug, described in tomorrow's issue of Nature, is part of a growing trend in brain research.

FORBES: A New Drug To Treat Alzheimer's?

Right now, Pepys' lab is funding the trials on its own, although Roche could get involved down the line.

FORBES: A New Drug To Treat Alzheimer's?

"But those are all only fantastic fairy stories at this point, " says Pepys.

FORBES: A New Drug To Treat Alzheimer's?

Pepys decided to go after a protein called serum amyloid P (SAP), which glues the amyloid protein together into clumps.

FORBES: A New Drug To Treat Alzheimer's?

Samuel Pepys, the diarist who told the story of the Great Fire of London set up one of the first pension schemes.

BBC: NEWS | Programmes | Working Lunch | Pensions: Past, present and future

"It's not clear exactly how protein clumps damage brain cells, " says Pepys.

FORBES: A New Drug To Treat Alzheimer's?

And diarists Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn wrote of the spectacle they witnessed when King Charles II took part in a pageant in 1660, a year after the restoration of the monarchy.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

In 1660, Samuel Pepys began his famous diary.

CNN: Thursday,

If you think you can rival Samuel Pepys' description of pigeons "hovering about the windows and balconies till they burned their wings and fell down" when recounting the Great Fire of London, then get writing.

BBC: 1066 And all that

While Mr Inwood spends several pages describing the Great Fire of 1666, with the help of accounts by contemporaries such as Pepys and Clarendon, Mr Sheppard devotes a single paragraph to describing one of the seminal events in London's history before moving on to the rather less gripping subject of the planning regulations that governed the rebuilding of the city.

ECONOMIST: London uncovered