GROHE X Keynote
The elixir of life
As a species our connection to water is hard to overstate. It is often pointed out that, like the planet we inhabit, we are mostly made up of water. The story of evolution in which we are the latest chapter began in the seas. In the womb we float in amniotic fluid. Without water we cannot metabolise food or transport oxygen around our bodies. We can survive without eating many times longer than we can without drinking.
Of course our external relationship with water is deep and complex. It is still often how we navigate our planet. It is a source of energy. Its presence remains the essential condition for the agriculture that feeds us. On a warming, drying planet, it is perhaps the most precious resource we have.
In her talk, Dr Healey wants to explore this human dependence on water. But she will also look at how in our modern lives we have lost touch with water as we have with other aspects of the natural world. Becoming more aware of water and its life-giving properties would bring the issue of the environment more to the centre of our collective thinking.
Dr Beth Healey
Medical Lead – Blue Abyss
Dr Healey works for the NHS in the UK as an emergency medicine doctor, while also contributing to the understanding of human physiology in extreme conditions as part of medical and logistical support teams on research projects in places such as Siberia and Greenland. She was research MD for the European Space Agency on its “White Mars” project, spending a winter in Antarctica with a crew to monitor their responses to extreme cold, isolation and lack of sunlight, challenges that would have to be met on any long space flight. The team’s findings will also inform treatments of multiple conditions here on earth.