Retired scientists: an untapped resource

Long past are my days of striving for great scientific achievements which sadly never came. With the passing decades, I have mellowed and become more accepting of my relatively limited contributions to scientific progress. I have become more tolerant, and less judgemental of the opinions of others including my fellow scientists. Also retirement has given me the leisure time to take the broader outlook on matters scientific and life in general. Although I still tend to approach science from the old fashioned reductionist approach popular in my youth, I simultaneously adhere to a humanist stance philosophically. I have never lost faith in the dream that science is a powerful means for advancing the quality of life of mankind. And I am sure I am not the only retired or semi retired scientist who holds these views. I think the retired status is useful because only then are scientists relatively free of external pressures and influences e.g. granting agencies, university promotions etc. As such I believe that retired scientists constitute a most valuable resource for when it comes to applying science to solve modern society’s problems and making this world a better place.

The problems which plague current civilization have two fundamental sources. Firstly, our biological and psychological nature and our social, political, and economic systems have roots extending back to our ancient evolutionary origins. These roots and their disadvantageous consequences go largely unrecognized by most of mankind. Secondly, modern civilization is not adequately attuned to, and in control of, the sometimes subtle, sometimes dramatic, effects on it of the technology made possible by scientific research. These are two very different sources of current world problems.

It is my belief that the solution to the problems created by these two root causes would be greatly facilitated by tapping the accumulated wisdom of the community of mature scientists. It cannot be left completely in the hands of politicians or worse still the blind hand of the market economy. Perhaps I am being influenced too much by my Jungian archetype of the wise old person or by my reading of Plato’s republic. And I know that science alone is not enough in this reshaping of modern civilization. But nevertheless, I believe that retired scientists can make a useful contribution along with others to making the world a better place.

I have listed below three serious societal problems which I think are ripe to be managed by the “wise” application of recent discoveries in neuroscience and psychology after consultation with and input from the community of retired scientists. I have also included what I feel are the important effects of these problems and a few of the most recent research articles on these topics. If you know of any other important research on these topics, please send them in to this blog. In future posts I will discuss these and other topics.

Some basic world problems, their effects, and recent research references


Inadequate parenting/nurturing of children (child abuse/neglect) leads to difficulties such as poor emotional self-regulation, deficient ability to respond to life’s challenges in a reflective (mindful) way, and limited interpersonal skills.

Recent research:
Teicher, M. H., Tomoda, A., & Andersen, S. L. (2006). Neurobiological consequences of early stress and childhood maltreatment: are results from human and animal studies comparable? Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci 2006; 1071:313-323. This article is one of a series in a special issue of the New York Academy of Sciences called “PSYCHOBIOLOGY OF POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER: A Decade of Progress”. Part V is called “Contributions of Developmental and Basic Neuroscience to Understanding PTSD”.

Addictions (drug, gambling, etc); insatiable needs e.g. for sex, power, status, material things; and obsessions lead to personal and interpersonal distress e.g. unemployment, divorce and widespread social problems e.g. poverty.
Recent research:
Robbins, T.W., Everitt, B.J. & Nutt, D.J. (2008). Introduction. The neurobiology of drug addiction: new vistas. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 363, 3109-3111.
Potenza, M. N. (2008). The neurobiology of pathological gambling and drug addiction: an overview and new findings. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B , 363, 3181–3189.
Both of these articles appear in a special issue of The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B in 2008 entitled “The Neurobiology of Addictions.”

Prejudices and lack of tolerance for differences of all kinds including disfigurements of any kind, mental or physical handicaps, differences in skin colour, race, religion, and sexual orientation. These types of prejudice lead to much of individual suffering as well as wars between nations.
Recent research:
Pettigrew, T. F. (2009). Probing the complexity fo intergroup prejudice. International Journal of Psychology. 44(1), 40-42.
Muraven, M. (2008). Prejudice as self-control failure. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 38(2), 314-333.
Ito, T. A., Willadsen-Jensen, E., Correll,J., Harmon-Jones, E. (Ed), Winkielman, P. (Ed). (2007). Social Neuroscience and Social Perception: New Perspectives on Categortization, Prejudice and Stereotyping. In “Social neuroscience: Integrating biological and psychological explanations of social behavior.” (pp. 401-421). New York, NY, US: Guilford Press.

In concluding, I would like once again to state the purpose of this blog. Are you an older retired scientist who just loves science? Does your interest in science continue unabated in your heart and mind? Would you like to have some way of sharing with others your reflections on various topics in science in an informal and accepting platform? Do you believe that science has the potential to make the world a better place? If so I hope you will visit this blog often. I hope that Sci-mat will provide a convenient and useful means for retired scientists to communicate with each other and with society at large.