Research has the power to make lives better – sometimes for an entire nation. Japan, for example, holds an annual celebration for Dr Kathleen Drew-Baker, a lecturer in botany and researcher at Manchester from 1922 to 1957.
A paper she published in 1949 was the spur for research that revolutionised Japanese production of nori, an edible form of seaweed popular for sushi. Dr Drew-Baker became known by the Japanese people as the ‘Mother of the Sea’, and a monument to her stands in Uto, Kumoto.
Illustration by Owen Davey – folioart.co.uk