A Goddess in Uto

Some people get Nobel Prizes for an article in Nature, but Kathleen Drew became a kami known as "the Mother of the Sea" - all thanks to her study of Welsh seaweed.

This marvellous piece combines many things I love about Radio 4, about Japan, and about science, all rolled into one delicious piece of sushi and wrapped in nori.

Her Wiki page tells us that Dr Drew "married Henry Wright-Baker in 1928, which resulted in her dismissal by the university [of Manchester] which had a policy of not employing married women. She got around this rule by obtaining an Ashburne Hall residents Fellowship, which allowed her to become an honorary research fellow."

In other words, she did her world-changing research without the benefit of a salary. (And she never visited Japan.)