But this haphazard intellectual foraging isn't a sign of incipient madness.
Nor is Stanley a compulsive and indiscriminate gatherer of facts. Far from it.
in nearly every book he opens, he finds another place to apply it.
Recently, he has been grappling with the mystery of Alzheimer's disease.
problems that other researchers have been battling with for years.
The idea that has so gripped Stanley is the "principle of universality".