A Retrospect with Nostalgia

Abstract

When I received an invitation to contribute a chapter to this book, I was very flattered to be considered a pioneer in neuroendocrinology. However, at the same time, I was very reluctant to accept the assignment. To write a chapter on my early years as a scientist, I would have had to fill the manuscript with lots of “I’s.” But I have a sort of allergy to using this pronoun in scientific publications and in all my papers I have made a point of never using expressions like “I have shown” or “I have reported” or “I have done.” I have always adopted more general sentences, like “it has been reported from the Milan laboratory,” “it has been found by this group,” “it has been shown by this department.” This is not because of modesty (a scientist cannot be modest), but because I have always felt (and still do) that, in today’s science, organized teams are more productive than individuals. When an experimental project is terminated, it is indeed always very difficult (sometimes impossible) to establish who the real “author” is. The person who had the first idea? The man or woman who developed it? The group who discussed the data critically at several meetings? How much is due to serendipity? However, I eventually decided to write this piece because I felt it would be relaxing to forget, just for a few days, the many problems we are presently facing in this country, and return to the years of my youth, with a sort of romantic approach.