Reflections, Reflections

Exhibit A: Britton Chance, 92 years old.

He arrives at his laboratory each day at 7:30 a.m. -- on his bicycle.

An emeritus professor in the department of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Mr. Chance studies cancerous tumors of the brain, breast, prostate, and muscles. He conducts experiments, works with undergraduate and graduate students, and publishes papers. He gave three honors lectures last month.

His hearing is fine, so don't mention the R-word around him.

"Why should I retire?" asks Mr. Chance, who has earned five degrees from Penn and the University of Cambridge and written more than 1,300 scientific articles on topics as diverse as radar and enzymes. "I have good health and a good body and the mind is still functioning."

[...]
Gertrude F. (Gert) Rempfer, 93. An emeritus professor of physics at Portland State University, she works six or seven hours a day to design a photoelectron microscope that will "correct chromatic and spherical aberrations."

Ms. Rempfer raised four children and pursued a career at a time when people "looked askance at you if you had a job outside the house," she says. "I was a little unusual in not really caring what people thought of me."
[...]
Charles H. (Hap) Fisher, 98, -After earning his Ph.D. in chemistry there, he taught at Harvard and went on to spend much of his career at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Four years ago, the graduate of Roanoke College returned to his alma mater as an adjunct research professor of chemistry.
[...]

Then there's Ray H. Crist. He is 105.

Until a year or so ago, the chemist was in the laboratory at Messiah College every day, sometimes for 10 hours at a stretch, doing research on the ability of plants like algae to absorb toxic metals from groundwater.
[...]
Failing health forced him to retire for good last spring. He is writing his autobiography, and he has a paper pending with the Pennsylvania Academy of Science.

"I am at the end of my working period," he says. "I only hope that I could have worked a little bit longer."