Contrast the Leitrim story with that of Rita Levi-Montalcini, an Italian Nobel laureate who turned 100 last Wednesday. She still attends for work every day at the European Brain Research Institute in Rome, which she founded. She was appointed a senator for life in 2001, and in 2006, aged 97, she attended the opening assembly of the newly elected senate. She takes part in discussions in the Upper House, and in 2004 defended the teaching of evolution in Italian schools. There is no record of her having claimed a day off because of festival commitments. Apparently she even manages to work right through the Rose of Tralee without lifting her head from her Petri dish.