Seven year units in science: general lessons from the personal
experience of working on adrenal cortex innervation and cortisol
secretion
Abstract
It seems to me that the learning and practice of science naturally falls
into approximately seven year units; and indeed the same could be said
about ‘life’. (Note: My operational definition of ‘seven’ is ‘more than
five but less than ten’.) My academic life has certainly been
consistent with this idea; and here I describe the first seven year unit
of my work as an active scientist: this was the seven years I spent as a
laboratory researcher focused primarily on the adrenal cortex. This unit
was successful; in the sense that I solved, to my own satisfaction, the
problem I was working-on. There may be some general interest and
instruction to be derived from taking this specific example as a
generalisable account of the different phases and aspects of an arc of
science – how a line of research may be initiated, developed and
brought to a conclusion. Furthermore, it is suggested that other
scientists might (if it comes naturally to them) consider changing their
focus and developing new interests every seven years or so.