The Retirement Newsletter: A small confession — I have not retired, or have I?

Issue Number: 6 — when things get blurred

Photo by Author — the last of the Bluebells — spring is almost done

Welcome

Welcome to issue number six, in which I make a small confession about my retirement: I am not as retired as I originally claimed.

My retirement

I have been a professional scientist for nearly 40 years, working at universities worldwide. During those almost 40 years, I have been a bench scientist doing science all day, every day in the lab and a lecturer teaching future generations of scientists. It was fun, and I enjoyed it.

As a bench scientist writing grants and papers, I kept up with the latest research and findings. When I was involved more in teaching (the lecturer phase of my career), I still kept up with a lot of the latest research because I had developed the habit when I was in research, and I needed to keep up to date with things for my teaching. Plus, I enjoyed reading about the latest science and ideas. However, two things happened to my reading habit when I was a lecturer — I didn’t read the cutting-edge material so much but went for reviews unless something caught my eye and I read more widely.

I went for reviews because they gave time for the literature to settle down and…