Buckinghamshire Federation of Women's Institutes
  • Home
  • who we are
    • Federation Trustees
    • Sub-Committees
    • Sub-Committee Videos
  • What we do
    • Current Campaigns
      • Climate Change
      • End Violence against Women
      • Get On Board
      • Stop Modern Slavery
      • Make a Match
      • 5 Minutes that matter
    • Resolutions
    • The Members' Blog
  • What's On
    • Events Calendar
    • Competitions & Challenges
      • Green Canopy Competition '22
      • Elizabeth Bell Challenge 2021
      • BFWI Silver Cup
      • Lady Denman Cup
      • Pudding Fit for a Queen
      • Virtual Show
  • Running your WI
    • Finding a Speaker
    • Subscriptions
    • Library
      • Tutorials & Library
    • Learning
      • WI Training
      • Denman @ Home
  • Gallery
  • Contact Us
  • On-line Store
  • History of Buckinghamshire WIs
  • Use of Website
  • Home
  • who we are
    • Federation Trustees
    • Sub-Committees
    • Sub-Committee Videos
  • What we do
    • Current Campaigns
      • Climate Change
      • End Violence against Women
      • Get On Board
      • Stop Modern Slavery
      • Make a Match
      • 5 Minutes that matter
    • Resolutions
    • The Members' Blog
  • What's On
    • Events Calendar
    • Competitions & Challenges
      • Green Canopy Competition '22
      • Elizabeth Bell Challenge 2021
      • BFWI Silver Cup
      • Lady Denman Cup
      • Pudding Fit for a Queen
      • Virtual Show
  • Running your WI
    • Finding a Speaker
    • Subscriptions
    • Library
      • Tutorials & Library
    • Learning
      • WI Training
      • Denman @ Home
  • Gallery
  • Contact Us
  • On-line Store
  • History of Buckinghamshire WIs
  • Use of Website


The Members' Blog

Authorship
Until January 2020, this Blog was the voice of an individual WI member.  Over her 40 years of membership, our Blogger had made a very fine contribution to this and other Federations in England.  With interests in crafts, reading and writing and in travel, she also took an active part in campaigning for women's welfare and education and on environmental issues.  While she has now handed over the Blog to the wider Bucks membership, her archived blog posts are a testament to someone who always made the utmost of her membership, and a rich source of information about the part the WI can play in today's society. 

Probes

10/3/2016

0 Comments

 
9th March
The discussion group from the local WI met this evening to talk about Consumer Power. First we defined what it is: the ability that the customer has to influence collectively industry locally, nationally and internationally. We then looked at the ways this can be done. No one needs to teach this to WI members who through NFWI back its mandates by lobbying, letter-writing and using boycotts. Now of course social media is a powerful tool. We listed the examples of the successful use of consumer power and how demand can be created too. Some of the methods used by well-meaning organisations were criticised but on the whole we supported the work they do.
7th March
Another sell-out for the BFWI Investigation and Discovery Day run by the Education and Current  Affairs  Subcommittee. Professor Monica Grady gave a very enthusiastic and lively account of the creation of the Rosetta space probe and the landing of Philae on a tiny comet. First she explained what the world already knew about the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud and why scientists wanted to know the actual make-up of a comet. Were they dirty snowballs of water and carbon or icy dirt balls? Did they hold the vital ingredients for the earth’s formation such as sugar, nitrogen and sulphur? Monica described the months of mathematical calculations and theories hammered out in the laboratory before being handed to the engineers to execute in time to catch the next rocket. And then the wait to see if it all worked…
Professor Seamus Higson made a welcome return to talk about biosensors, a talk which he had called snappily “From Canaries to Path. Labs and Smelly Fish to Smellier Wounds” and that is exactly what the audience got. We learned about new ways to track glucose levels in blood with the least possible pain and inconvenience for the patient. Lessons in technology had been taken from screen printers, creators of CD discs and yes, mosquitoes! Then we were on to tracking fraud by reading the DNA of the food on your plate and how to save space but include the latest technology in the vans of para- medics so that, by the time the patients arrived at A&E much was already known about them and treatment could start almost immediately. Then there are dressings which can see through to the wounds below and keep treating them without having to risk their removal tearing the newly formed skin.
After an emergency evacuation of the building and lunch, the members returned to enjoy another very lively presentation by Dr Jennifer Rohn  “Antibiotics :the revenge of the microbes”--- incomprehensible numbers in space this morning and now one hundred million bacteria in each one of our bodies. Thank Goodness they are not all being unhelpful! We then saw some of the bad guys working in our bladders and the growth of cancer cells. Jennifer told us that it takes 20 years to get a new drug launched in the world and there is now a gap in production because it was believed that most problems had been solved: everyone had underestimated the way in which bacteria can combat antibiotics. Patients who don’t complete their antibiotic programmes and the over-  prescription of drugs by doctors and agriculturists, all help to educate the bacteria on how to beat the medicine. This talk was not a case of “Are you sitting comfortably, then I’ll begin” but more “When you are really uncomfortable, I’ll stop”. Surrounded as we all undoubtedly were by trillions of shared  bacteria, I wouldn’t have missed listening to Jennifer for anything!
Dr Richard Wyse from the Cure Parkinson’s Trust also showed us pictures of bacteria, those heading for the brain this time. He described the trials conducted on new drugs and the difficulties inherent in these. The wearing of catheters plugged into the brain is just one of the physical problems. There was footage of some successful treatments of patients in USA and work is going on in Hertfordshire. Experiments are being conducted where skin samples from the patient can be analysed and returned to the body with beneficial results and a drug from the saliva of lizards is on trial. However Richard thinks that combined therapies may hold the answer e.g. to make use of statins and cancer inhibitors in the fight against Parkinson’s disease.
After today, one thing is certain and all the speakers mentioned it. We need scientists and engineers and it would be a marvellous thing if we could encourage the young members of our families to study these subjects because time is of the essence. Invention and discovery takes time and money: there are no short cuts. Also from today’s event, these scientists are a lively enthusiastic lot who think outside the box---blood samples on CDs, lizards’ saliva? Who said science was boring?
​
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    December 2021
    September 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013

    Categories

    All
    ACWW
    Annual Meeting
    Body Image
    Book Group
    Bucks County Show
    Care Not Custody
    Centenary
    Christmas
    COOL
    Denman
    Digital Team Leader
    Discussion Group
    Existentialist Angst
    FGM
    Food Matters
    Great Food Debate
    Happy Stitchers
    History Day
    Homelessness
    Investigation And Discovery
    Jammin' With The WI
    Literary Lunch
    Loneliness
    Love Your Libraries
    Membership
    Mental Health Matters
    Modern Slavery
    Organ Donation
    Plastic Soup
    Quiz
    Resolutions
    Science
    Shop
    SOS For High Streets
    Stuart Lodge
    Support Overdue
    Violence Against Women
    WI Campaigns
    WI Constitution
    WI Crafts
    WI Life
    Women's History
    Women's Suffrage

    RSS Feed

Buckinghamshire Federation of Women's Institutes (Affiliated to the National Federation of Women's Institutes)   ​Charity No: 228057 ​
​External links disclaimer
Throughout our site you will find links to external websites. Although we make every effort to ensure these links are accurate, up to date and relevant, BFWI cannot take responsibility for pages maintained by external providers.  If you come across any external links that don't work, we would be grateful if you could report them to us.
Photo used under Creative Commons from rverc
  • Home
  • who we are
    • Federation Trustees
    • Sub-Committees
    • Sub-Committee Videos
  • What we do
    • Current Campaigns
      • Climate Change
      • End Violence against Women
      • Get On Board
      • Stop Modern Slavery
      • Make a Match
      • 5 Minutes that matter
    • Resolutions
    • The Members' Blog
  • What's On
    • Events Calendar
    • Competitions & Challenges
      • Green Canopy Competition '22
      • Elizabeth Bell Challenge 2021
      • BFWI Silver Cup
      • Lady Denman Cup
      • Pudding Fit for a Queen
      • Virtual Show
  • Running your WI
    • Finding a Speaker
    • Subscriptions
    • Library
      • Tutorials & Library
    • Learning
      • WI Training
      • Denman @ Home
  • Gallery
  • Contact Us
  • On-line Store
  • History of Buckinghamshire WIs
  • Use of Website