Rita Levi-Montalcini: 100 years of rational thought

Rita Levi-Montalcini has remarkable energy, says Richard Owen in the Times. The Italian neurobiologist, who won the Nobel prize in 1986 for her discovery of nerve growth factor, celebrated her 100th birthday this week.

But she is far from retired: the professoressa, as she is known, plays an active role in domestic politics, campaigns for women's rights in Africa, and still flies to scientific conferences around the world.

Trim and elegant, she is not tired of life - but she is pessimistic about the future. "The brain has two hemispheres," she says, "one ancient or archaic, which governs our emotions and instincts, the other younger, which governs our capacity to reason.

"Today the archaic [instinctive side] tends to dominate. It was the part of our brains which got us down from the trees, but it is the cause of all the disasters and the cause of the great danger to our planet today. It is taking the human race toward extinction. The end is already at hand."

She has herself tried to "live with serenity, using the rational left-hand side" of her brain. That being the case, she doesn't attach much significance to her birthday.

"It just happened that I was born 100 years ago, merit had nothing to do with it," she says. "The secret of life is to keep thinking. And to stop thinking about ourselves. That's the only message I have."