I am an Alzheimer’s doctor. I practice at a “university-based memory center.” I care for patients with failing brains, and I also care for their families, because you cannot have one without the other.

Technology surrounds me. Beneath me, in a basement encased in concrete, a 220-ton cyclotron spins hydrogen atoms to near light speed, creating a beam of protons to shoot at a cancer. Around me, infusions suites house intravenous pumps delivering powerful medications. There are devices to monitor, pace and even resuscitate hearts. The building itself testifies to invention, a multi-storied glass-and-steel-framed atrium, a kind of crystal palace.