The chemical is used as the starting point for other drugs, including nicergoline, a treatment for senile dementia.

ECONOMIST: LSD

This raises problems for pensions (Japan has a pay-as-you-go system) and health care (the number of people with senile dementia is set to reach 2.6m in 2015, up from 1m in 1990).

ECONOMIST: Social conventions and demography add to the sclerosis

Herbert Molderings, a German art historian, believes that the provenance given at the time of sale was questionable: the collection, made by a Nazi businessman, was left to his widow, only to disappear from her estate after she became senile.

ECONOMIST: Auction houses