Introduction

Abstract

When an academic scientist retires he loses his salary and, unless he is very lucky, his secretary. Many other things that seemed important vanish, but there can be compensation in a new freedom. In a senior scientific post one’s overriding concern is to try to ensure a satisfying career for the younger people who have come into research under one’s aegis. It will do them harm if their sponsor is not well regarded by his senior contemporaries. In particular he must be seen to conform to the rules. There are rules about research which are vital to its integrity and which must never be broken; but there are others which are mere conventions. One is that the only legitimate activity for a scientist must be firmly centred on experimental work under his own control and in part at least done with his own hands. Another is expressed in Medawar’s epigram that science is the art of the soluble: that it is only justifiable to ask questions in such a form that at least in principle they can be solved by acceptable experimental methods. As a working scientist I accepted them all as necessary and socially expedient just as I knew that it was wise to keep doubts about the human relevance of much good scientific work to myself. With retirement I have felt free to question them.