Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, 6 (1977) 73-74 73 ©Elsevier Sequoia S.A., Lausanne - Printed in the Netherlands

EDITORIAL

HAYFLICK, ACADEMIA AND BUREAUCRACIES

The letter appearing in this issue from Professor Andrus Viidik, one of our Editors, conforms generally with the conclusions your Editor-in-Chief has derived from the study

of the sad record of the last 6 months as it bears on the career of another of our Editors, Professor Leonard Hayrick of Stanford University. Whatever the ultimate resolution of the matter in the courts may be (and I wish personally to state that Len Hayrick has never misled me in the 16 years of our acquaintance and that he demonstrated uncom- mon courage at the time that another of our Editors was arrested during the Kiev Geron- tology Congress . . . . a courage and leadership that perhaps prevented a second incarcer- ation of Z. Medvedev in a mental hospital), this Editor believes that the interests of fair play and of due process were short-circuited by the three entities mentioned in Viidik's letter.

There are three consequences of the "Hayflick Tragedy" which fair-minded persons will deplore. The first of these is a potential return to the spirit of the early 1950s, when the careers of numerous innocent persons were destroyed through similar accusations, widely circulated by the press. The second is an erosion of procedures which protect tenured faculty against arbitrary pressures from university administrators and legal counsels. The third, and in the short run most important, fall-out of the manner in which Hayrick was treated is that his contributions to experimental gerontology have, for the time being, essentially been obliterated.

These contributions include not only the cessation of his own experimental studies, including quite imaginative studies on hybridization of "early passage" nuclei with "late passage" cytoplasm, but perhaps more importantly on the national scene, his necessary resignation, under the circumstances, from the Council of the new National Institute on Aging. Hayrick was particularly vigorous as a proponent of a comprehensive and critical set of initial research objectives for the new institute. Such a research plan, specifically mandated in the legislation that established the new institute, is already 18 months overdue.

With the advent of a new administration, it can be anticipated that the stand-off between Congress and the Executive on this and other key legislation affecting science, technology, energy, biomedical research and training and problems of the elderly will happily dissipate itself. Even before the" election some hopeful signs had appeared on the horizon. One of these was a very spirited and informative special hearing conducted by Sen. Charles Percy at the New York Meetings of the Gerontological Society , that dealt with the emerging and present need to incorporate training in geriatric medicine into Medical School curricula. It is also to be hoped that the concern for individual rights and due process which are a part of our heritage as a nation will be reaffirmed by those who constitute the new administration.

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Human beings and their institutions are fallible entities and it is more likely that

overzealousness and the shadow of Watergate led to the insensitivity of the press, academia and the Washington bureaucracy to this departure from historical procedures and rights than that they reflect malice on the part of those who generated this mess.

In the meantime, the new institute is evidently in good hands. The Director is a man of compassion and insight. Hopefully his aspirations which parallel in most respects those of basic scientists in aging research will not fall victim to the senescence which gradually overtakes any human creation, including the one that has done so much to make real progress in understanding biological processes and disease mechanisms possible, the N.I.H.

In the face of some of life's absurd episodes, a smile and hopefulness are still the best antidotes. Hopefully, the regeneration implicit in a new administration will arrest bureaucractic senescence for a time and the distasteful paranoia of the past years that President Ford did so much to blunt will largely disappear, so that our hearts and minds can lend themselves to the higher and more creative goals Mr. Carter rightly has identified as the essence of the American experiment.

The research plan for the National Institute on Aging was received by your Editor- in-Chief on February 7th, 1977. The next issue of the journal will contain the contents of this plan together with appropriate editorial comment.

BERNARD L. STREHLER Editor-in-Chief