By: Chris Millward
There is no doubt that Life Sciences Week will deliver outcomes in many areas for our region when the sector’s innovation meets industry leadership during the conference. There are also other subtle opportunities to be explored that can contribute to our region leading the world forward again, as it has many times before during its rich history.
Restoring a Path for Society
Life Sciences Week follows hot on the heels of Birmingham being crowned the UK’s first Nature City and presents a great opportunity to sow seeds that go on to blossom and root themselves in society, allowing us all to thrive and realise our full potential together.
The ecology professor, Edward O. Wilson suggested, in his 1984 book “Biophilia”, that our affinity with nature was a deep evolutionary trait that contributed greatly to human health, productivity and wellbeing.
If the UK life sciences sector, that employs around 300,000 people, places nature; Earth’s life support system, in its heart then it can place society on a new path where daily life embraces our innate love of life, allowing us all to flourish. This is, in fact, an old path and yet, somehow, we strayed from it and became disconnected at great cost to our happiness, health and wellbeing.
Kathy Willis, Professor of Biology at the University of Oxford, in her book “good nature” which was published last year, reveals the new science of how nature improves our health. The evidence in Kathy’s work is compelling and the impact of bringing nature back into our daily lives would clearly be game-changing. Our region, with its Nature City, can lead the world forward again and that journey can start when the doors open at Millennium Point on Monday morning for an inaugural West Midlands Life Sciences Week.
Realising the Potential on a Bus
We can visualise the scale of human potential that could be unlocked and the extent to which our region can thrive through nature-connection by looking at a passing bus from a new angle.
There might be fifty passengers on that bus, contributing to the city through their work, creativity, education, parenting, other care and community work. If more people on that bus are connected to nature, they will get off it and give more to the city by being in a better mood and state of mind to unlock their creativity and full potential.
If the children get off that bus to learn about and connect with local nature in their schools, then they will be happier, healthier and go on to care for their neighbourhoods, building pride in place.
Hospital patients recover faster from surgery by simply looking out of their ward window into nature so imagine the potential that would be unleashed if the bus were to journey through greener neighbourhoods.
Now scale that vision of human potential up from fifty passengers on a bus to the three million people that live across the West Midlands Combined Authority area. It is easy to see a game-changing opportunity for us all to thrive by bringing nature into daily life. Imagine the impact on our local economy through increased productivity!
Life-changing Conversations
Life sciences are of course relevant to us all and around two thousand people are expected to engage with fifty events during Life Sciences Week that will include keynote speeches, panel discussions, a gala dinner and awards evening, socials and workshops as well as an opening day exhibition.
I also welcome you to register and join me on the afternoon of next Friday 19th September for a walking workshop along the Bourn Brook to explore the potential of a “Life with Nature” together.
I leave you with a quote from the New York Times best-selling writer on transformational wisdom, Marianne Williamson to ponder on whilst considering how your life would feel without nature compared to the prospect of a daily life with nature:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure”.
