STRONG and VITAL No 5

Wall of Lamentation

Do university professors receive large amounts of research funding (taxpayer money) through fake news?

Wall of Lamentation

The following article (in italics) appeared some time ago in a Swiss newspaper. If one really takes a closer look at the numbers between the lines, it seems hard to avoid the question of whether the German Prof. Dr. Martin (University of Zurich) might be more interested in research funding – and per haps casually releasing a piece of fake news? How often do many journalists fall for fake news and thus allow themselves, directly or indirectly, to be taken for a ride?

How Old We Could Soon Become A gerontologist predicts a sharp rise in the Swiss average age by 2050. But why this does not ne cessarily have to be a problem. With the baby boomers, a genera tion is retiring that is likely to break all age records.

That is why the researcher calls for greater flexibility. Older people not working often has less to do with performance and more with the perception that they are no longer up to the job. Abilities such as concentration or memory capacity peak well beyond age 65. “Companies must adapt and offer workplaces for 70- or even 75-year-olds.” The public’s wishes, however, look different: A Schweiz am Sonntag survey of 1,200 people shows that almost half of those surveyed would like to live to 90 or older – yet at the same time, a third would prefer to retire at 60. (chi) Editorial Note: Questionable aging re search – or fake news to secure research funding? Once again, grandiose predic tions are being made. Prof. Dr. Mike Martin of the University of Zurich claims that by 2050 the first 130-year-olds will be alive. But anyone who actually looks at the reality of aging cannot take this se riously. Let’s be blunt: to reach such an age, in 2025 we would already need to see a man or woman aged 99 who is in top condition – the fittest in history. But the fittest elder we have ever known, Dr. Charles Eugs ter, still a world-class athlete, died at 97. Even if he were alive today, he would already be 105 – and there is no one, absolutely no one,

who could live another 25 years in full health without being artificially kept alive by medical survival ma chines. Open Letter (originally sent in 2019 – still unanswered): To Prof. Dr. phil. Mike Martin, Uni versity of Zurich m.martin@psychologie.uzh.ch Dear Professor Martin, I was recently at a lecture in Zurich where Dr. Lukas Zahner (Universi ty of Basel) even presented a slide quoting your thesis that by 2050 the first 130-year-old humans will exist. Frankly, I cannot imagine what your so-called “aging research” is based on. Not a single centenari an I personally know – and I know quite a few – could live another 30 years. In reality, what we see in practice is this: we manage to get 80- and 90-year-olds out of their wheelchairs with muscle training, allowing them to live independently again. That is already a remarkable achievement. But extending their lives by another three decades? Impossible – unless you plan to keep people plugged into medical machinery for decades. Your prediction is not just bold – it is absurd. And I do not under stand how such nonsense can even make it into print. If you had said 2150 instead of 2050, perhaps one could at least laugh it off as science fiction. But as a scientific forecast? It is a provocation to common sense.

© Schweiz am Sonntag) Mike Martin, professor at the University of Zurich and one of Europe’s most renowned aging researchers, points to a new dimension:

“I suspect that by 2050 we will see the first 130-year-olds, or per haps even older,” he told Schweiz am Sonntag. Because a much larger group of people will quite likely reach 90 and older, the chance for even higher outliers also increases. The oldest Swiss woman passed away only a few years ago: she was 110 years old. Call for More Flexibility “I resist viewing longer life ex pectancy as a problem,” says Martin. “It only becomes a prob lem for social systems if we tie it rigidly to a fixed retirement age.”

Jean-Pierre Schupp

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STRONG and VITAL No. 5