Senior Scientists Grace Their Ages

Photos: Erica P. Johnson Britton Chance Padding around his laboratory in gray wool socks, Britton Chance glances at the clock and notices the hour is approaching noon. On Saturday, that's quitting time for the 89-year-old University of Pennsylvania biophysics professor emeritus. But first he has E-mails to answer and a lab to close for the day. Chance moves slowly but sure-footedly. Time has bowed his lean frame ever so slightly, and he remains a spare man with big brown glasses and wispy white hair. But he has a strong handshake and a solid grip on his studies of the relation between the brain, muscles, and cancer. He also examines how the brain reacts when people lie. "Most brains work harder when lying than when they are not lying," says Chance, idly fiddling with a scissors and a piece of paper. "I don't know how it's going to work with poker players and strippers." STAYING KEEN PAST 70 Chance's Saturday appearance at the lab offers a template for the expanding number of life scientists who have never given retirement, or for that matter, age, a second thought. According to the National Science Foundation, scientists with PhDs are more likely to continuing working after the traditional retirement age than are other scientists and engineers. At age 69, more than 27% of scientists and engineers with PhDs work full-time, compared with 13% of those with bachelor's and master's degrees.1 And while their physical abilities may have ebbed somewhat, their minds remain keen. "It's rather inefficient to turn off a career at the current retirement age, and it's catastrophic psychologically for some people involved," Chance says. "The society is throwing away a valuable resource." During the week, Chance all but lives in Room 250 in the Anatomy-Chemistry Building at the Penn Medical School. He arrives by 7:30 a.m. and rarely locks up before 8 p.m. He pedals home on his faded 10-speed bicycle with the black-squeeze horn and basket where he stores his smudged helmet. It's another hour or two of writing reports or putting the finishing touches on a grant application before bedtime. But Saturday is different. It's the day Chance forgets about the brain's workings and dreams about that first gust of wind catching the main sail. Just two hours and 90 miles away from his lab, Britton Chance, biophysicist, transforms into Britton Chance, helmsman for the 1952 American gold medal Olympic yachting team. "I'm going sailing, man," he says as he crams the last papers into his bulging bag. "We're going where the wind takes us. It's pure enjoyment." Science and sailing are the sums that make up the whole of Britton Chance. The senior scientist has the mental acuity to perform experiments that garner grants; he also has the physical vigor, reflexes, and self-confidence to sail his 22-foot sloop, Complex 7 (named for his favorite enzyme), out into the elements of the Atlantic Ocean. Yet 19 years ago, Chance was forced to surrender his faculty position because of a university policy requiring professors to retire at 70. The policy was based on the common belief that by 70 the human brain was in decline. Everyone knew that life--physically and mentally--was all downhill after 50. Exercise physiologists, however, have proven that regular exercise will keep our muscles strong, our bodies vital, and our hearts healthier. The same appears true about the brain. Studies confirm that vigorous, regular mental workouts do for the brain what aerobic exercise and weight lifting do for muscles. Marian C. Diamond, a 75-year-old neuroanatomist at the University of California, Berkeley, first reported that finding 17 years ago. She published a ground-breaking study, measuring rats' brain size in relation to their mental activity, that showed the brain is capable of growing and learning at any age.2 "We found that like a muscle cell, you use it and it grows," says Diamond, whom many consider the authority on brain function. "Nerve cells in the cerebral cortex grow with use. If you live in an enriched environment you can keep the brain active for a lifetime." Photo: Erica P. Johnson REDEFINING RETIREMENT Older brains must work harder to learn than do younger brains. Yet many people now believe that the findings of Diamond and others could alter society's view of retirement and old age. Retirement which often eliminates beneficial stimuli, may become ancient history. Rather than retire, people may more often end one career and pursue a new one. "People in different fields that allow transitions rather than full retirement continue to be active and work in different ways," says Gene Cohn, a George Washington University professor and director of the Center on Aging, Health & Humanities. "This has created one of the greatest national resources, especially in science." Diamond used her discovery to stave off her own forced retirement. She told her university president that the study proved that if people can, they should be permitted to keep working. The president agreed. Today Diamond still teaches a regular class load and undergoes performance reviews every five years. If she doesn't meet university standards, her contract can be terminated. "It's terribly hard but I'm not going to let it get me down," she says. "I'm still having clever ideas in my 70s." Retirement was never one of her clever ideas. To her, aging crept up on her. One morning she woke up and people were making a fuss about her being 70. She believes that keeping physically fit helps the brain stay vibrant. She swims five days a week and plays tennis, golf, and ping-pong. "Nobody is saying it's easy," Diamond says. "Aging isn't for sissies." Fred Kummerow also demonstrates that aging isn't for the fainthearted. Every weekday between 11 a.m. and noon, the 87-year-old adjunct professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign spends an hour working out in the school's weight room. Also a professor emeritus of food chemistry, he tops off the time with 500 meters of nonstop laps in the swimming pool. "After I swim I feel like I'm 60," he says. "After 5 p.m. I feel about 70. I think it's essential that you have physical exercise, mental exercise, and eat properly." Kummerow's days start when he arrives at his lab around 9 a.m. After exercise and lunch he works until 5 p.m. A quick pre- dinner nap allows the scientist to write reports and pour over correspondence until 11 p.m. Saturdays he putters around the house, but it's back to work on Sunday. While Kummerow doesn't teach a set course schedule, he still is included in all department meetings and consults daily with younger professors. He has full confidence in his mental faculties, although "it might sometimes take an instant or two to remember how to spell a word." As for retiring, he's never considered it. "Hell no," says Kummerow, who studies coronary disease and examines why some veins used in bypass surgery fail. "I'm on the cutting edge of science. I hope to keep doing this until I put both feet in the grave." Retirement never figured into Chance's personal or professional equation either. He is a scientist for life. Yet when the sea change of mandatory retirement came, he didn't fight it. He traded in his work-a-day professorship title for the more erudite moniker of the Eldridge Reeves Johnson University Professor Emeritus of biophysics. Emeritus, he jokes, really means "out to pasture." And that's okay with him because it hasn't really affected his work. "I'm able to get grants which pays indirectly for the cost of lab space," says Chance, who speaks just a notch above a loud whisper. "My grants have continued and I'm able to have a small group working on things that I want to see through." The grants continue to come because the professor continues to produce. His most recent work with molecular beacons is awaiting approval by the Food and Drug Administration for use as a diagnostic tool. The beacons are injectable molecules that attach to early-stage cancer cells. When they find cancer, the beacons bond and light up, making them visible on magnetic resonance imaging scans. "It will help some people," he says. "That's not too bad." Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. ("It was a long time ago, so don't ask me about it."), Chance came to Penn in 1938 after finishing his doctorate at Cambridge. Except for a few years during World War II, Penn has been his home ever since. Over the course of his career, Chance has studied the brain and cancer, first at the molecular level and now in humans. "I never believed we'd be studying the brain and cancer and muscles with the precision and insight that is now possible," he says, sitting on a stool at a table that serves as his desk. Chances's days are full, starting around 6 a.m. Before heading to the lab he spends 20 minutes or so on a ham radio network that sends Morse code to private vessels plying the Atlantic off the eastern seaboard. The code helps the boats plot their positions. Boating fills whatever free time Chance has left after work. He doesn't know how long he has sailed but it's been a long time. Chance would go to his boat if he ever decided to leave science. But that time hasn't come, yet. He says he feels the same as he always has, and the only concession to his years is that he won't drive at night. Otherwise, it's business as usual."I think I generate new ideas pretty regularly," he says. "Not every time I go to the bathroom. I have a very stimulating group here who are high-class scholars, and I interact with them and other scholars." But now it's time to get going. The forecast for Saturday is warm and sunny but Sunday looks like rain. Chance doesn't want to waste any more time talking when he could be on his way to Complex 7. His crew of old friends will be waiting and they'll head out to the ocean. "I like staying out at sea," he says. "That's my bag." Bob Calandra (rotoca@aol.com) is a freelance writer in Philadelphia. References 1. M. Diamond et al., "Plasticity in 904-day-old male rat cerebral cortex," Experimental Neurology, 87:309-17, 1985. 2. National Science Board, "Science and engineering indicators 2002," available online at www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind02/c3/c3h.htm.

Senior Scientists Grace Their Ages

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