Freshers week at Bristol University

Most British universities start their new year in the middle of September. For a lot of anxious 18 year olds it will be the first time they have lived away from home. Parents also worry I remember saying goodbye to three of my children and worrying about everything from them having enough warm socks to them managing to avoid drugs. My mother must also have had the same worries about me when I left home at 18 to become a student.

This week for the coffee share, I am inviting you to come with us for coffee to a rather unusual venue close to Bristol University. On Saturday we enjoyed a walk around Bristol University campus. The walk was sponsored by Bristol University public engagement team and our leader was given the topic of Bristol university’s contribution to research. We were given a bottle of water and a piece of fruit in a brown paper bag to sustain us on our two mile walk.

History

It is actually suprising that a large and important city like Bristol did not have a university until 1909. Bristol university owes its existence to a large donation of a hundred thousand pounds from H.O. Wills a local cigarette manufacturer. My top photo shows the Wills tower in Park Street completed in 1925. Many of the important buildings were built in the gothic revival style and are very impressive. The gothic revival style had already been used for other buildings in Clifton such as All Saints Church.

The university now has over 30, 000 staff and students and is part of the Russell Group of top universities. It is ranked 9th in the UK and 55th in the world. It is also one of the largest employers in the area. Bristol is a very green city with a great cultural scene and a thriving economy making it a great place to study.

Whisper it quietly but UWE, the University of the West of England just outside Bristol where I studied nursing actually has more students and a bigger campus.

Bristol University staff and students have made many important contributions to research particularly in the fields of medicine and physics. I would like to introduce you to three of my favourites who were discussed on our walk. I was lucky enough to meet Richard Gregory and Jean Golding in real life and they were both very approachable.

Bristol physics department built in gothic revival style

Dorothy Hodgkins

Dorothy Hodgkins who was chancellor of the university helped to discover the structure of molecules such as insulin and vitamin B12 through Xray crystallography. This made it possible to make them artificially in the laboratory. She received the Nobel prize in 1964 for her research.

Richard Gregrory

Wallace and Grommit in the Bristol exploratory

Richard Gregory was particularly interested in how the brain processes visual images and what causes optical illusions. He was instrumental in setting up the exploratory now “we the curious” . A place where children and adults can learn more about science in a fun way. It is a favourite with my own grandchildren who particularly enjoyed the Aardman animation sets.

Jean Golding

Jean Golding set up a study in 1990 called children of the 90’s. She recruited as many parents as possible of babies born in Bristol in 1991/2. She collected samples of hair, milk teeth, blood and as much data as possible, I was working at Bristol maternity hospital at the time so met many of the children of the 90″s and their mothers. I also remember seeing many tubs of samples in storage.

This study has produced important results. Early benefits included a back to sleep campaign to encourage mothers to lie children on their backs which helped reduce cot deaths, the discovery that the use of peanut oil in nappy cream was causing peanut allergies and the effects of lead polution on inner city children.

The study is continuing and now includes the next generation. One of the latest findings suggests that a baby’s birthweight can be affected if their maternal grandmother smoked during pregnancy. One of the members of our walking group son and grandson are part of the study so she was able to add extra details.

Henrietta Lacks

I like this statue which was erected recently outside the Jean Golding institute. It shows Henrietta Lacks a black American woman who died of ovarian cancer aged 31. Some of her cancer cells were used to create a cell line which can reproduce outside the body. Even though Henrietta Lacks had nothing to do with Bristol some of her cancer cells are still being used in research.

It is one of the few female statues in Bristol. Initially her family objected as she had not consented to the use of Hela cells as they are known but they have now settled the case and one of her sons came to the unveiling.