SCIENCE: Inventive Women Get Their Rewards

By Sanjay Suri Reprint | | Print |

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Apr 26 2003 (IPS) - From biotechnology to new headscarves, the creativity of women was on display at the ‘Female Invent 2003 Awards’ in London.

The awards are the creation of Bola Olabisi, founder and chief executive officer of the Global Women Inventors & Innovators network (GWIIN).

Olabisi has been particularly inventive about inventions. She set up the British Female Inventor of the Year Awards five years ago, and this year expanded the awards to include women from around the world.

The awards were supported by Trade Partners UK, an associate of the British government’s Department of Trade and Industry, and by the Commonwealth Business Council of the Commonwealth, a group of 54 nations comprising countries that were once a part of the British Empire.

One of the top ten awards Thursday went to Dr Seema Prakash from India for what has come to be called Glass Bead Liquid Culture Technology. These are really just plants growing in little bottles except that they have been cloned from cells of the healthiest plants in the species.

A cloned banana plant can yield 65 kg per plant in a season. A cloned cardamom plant can yield two kilograms in place of a more usual 50 grams. Some such inventions call into question ethical and legal issues, and the plight of poor farmers who cannot pay for patented seeds.

Prakash says such produce can dramatically improve nutrition levels around the world, and bring about an "evergreen revolution". The judges in any case were looking only at the inventiveness.

Less controversial than cloned plants was the award that went to Mia Cecilia Seipel from Sweden for the design of what she calls her range of ‘Boob’ clothing for nursing mothers. These are designer dresses with a double layer of fabric over the bust so that an overlapping opening is formed. The opening can be simply pushed aside with one hand, making nursing comfortable and discreet.

Ulla Pohjola from Finland won an award for designing floors that seem to illuminate themselves. Grooves are made in paving stones or floor tiles, which are then fitted with translucent tubes. Matching tubes in adjacent tiles mean one tube continues into another. Optical fibres are then inserted into the tubes to make a floor luminous.

An inevitable winner was Laila Abd El-Monem, known in Egypt as the Mother of Invention. She owns more than 100 patents, including electrical escalators for aircraft, and an automatic jack. She was nominated mother of inventors by The American Inventors Society. She is author of three books including ‘The Way to Invent’ and ‘Environment Empty of Pollution’.

Here is a quick glance at what some other women have been inventing – and won awards for: – Princess Adelaide who is born of a British father and a Ghanaian princess, and married to a Nigerian, invented a cloth that combines the weaving techniques of the Ghanaian Kente cloth and the Nigerian Aso-Oke cloth. It borrows from the traditional format, but with modern interpretations.

– Karen Welman from Britain has designed an infant car seat that converts to a front or rear facing pushing chair; invented temperature regulated fabric particularly suited for disabled teenagers; and an adjustable cot that can stand alone or become an extension of the parental bed, with maximum visibility of the sleeping child.

– Kolfinna Knutsdottir from Iceland has designed scarves that are a protection from ultra-violet rays. She has designed a range of headgear also for women who lose their hair due to chemotherapy or other reasons.

– Rama Anand from India has produced a range of designer furniture using old tyres. Her designs, which have been patented in 117 countries, are elegant and also a way of using waste material and protecting forests.

British inventor Mandy Haberman is now offering advice to the winning women on patenting and protecting their inventions. Haberman has set up her own initiative to encourage inventive women, ‘Make Sparks Fly’.

"By promoting and recognising the achievements of women innovators, everyone wins," said Andrina Lever, president of the firm Lever Enterprises. "The women gain recognition and markets, young women are encouraged to follow their dream, and the country economy’s wins."

The initiative to reward women innovators is being supported by the Institute of Patentees and Inventors based in Switzerland.