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Born in 1910, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin perfected X-ray crystallography, a type of imaging using X-rays to determine a molecule’s three-dimensional structure.

She determined the structures of insulin, penicillin & vitamin B12, leading to tremendous advances in medicine.

Hodgkin was awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964. She also advocated for world peace, campaigning against both the Vietnam War & nuclear weapons. https://www.nobelprize.org/womenwhochangedscience/stories/dorothy-hodgkin #HistoryRemix #science #history

The Nobel Prize | Women who changed science | Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin

“Captured for life by chemistry and by crystals,” as she described it, Dorothy Hodgkin turned a childhood interest in crystals into the ground-breaking use of X-ray crystallography to “see” the molecules of penicillin, vitamin B12 and insulin.
www.nobelprize.org
#science #history #historyremix
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Preston MacDougall
Preston MacDougall
• •
Vitamin B12 doing a lovely pirouette. https://youtu.be/zLyyQh-e9lM?feature=shared

Vitamin B12 pirouette!

A volume rendering of the Laplacian of the total charge density computer for vitamin B12 doing a lovely pirouette!
YouTube
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

James M.
James M.
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it was also X-ray crystallography that Rosalind Franklin used to discover the structure of DNA. Thanks for this post, I didn't know about Hodgkin!
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

ArchaeoIain
ArchaeoIain
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a remarkable family the Hodgkins. Our family doctor was one. Responsible for courses in General Practice in at least three countries.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Pete Zicato
Pete Zicato
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Wow. What a gal. Sharp as razors. Will of iron. And cute as a button. The wiki article talks about her rheumatoid arthritis. How can you think with all that pain?

Thanks for introducing her, Sheril.

in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Florian Haas
Florian Haas
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There's an *excellent* In Our Time episode on her.

In Our Time: Dorothy Hodgkin
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008wkk


Dorothy Hodgkin

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the winner of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
BBC
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Health Is Wealth
Health Is Wealth
• •
So that's what she looks like! What an amazing woman. You may already known but she is one of the entries in Rachel Ignotofsky's brilliant book: 'Women In Science - 50 fearless pioneers who changed the world'. #rachelignotofsky #womeninscience
A front cover photo of the book 'Women In Science' by Rachel Ignotofsky.
A photo from inside the book 'Women In Science' by Rachel Ignotofsky. The section depicts an illustration of the scientist Dorothy Hodgkin.
A photo from inside the book 'Women In Science' by Rachel Ignotofsky. The section describes the scientist Dorothy Hodgkin with small illustrations to either side of the page.
#womeninscience #rachelignotofsky
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Fazal Majid
Fazal Majid
• •
She also had a student then known as Margaret Roberts, better known under her married name of Thatcher, who was prouder to be the first British PM from a science background than the first woman PM.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

BashStKid
BashStKid
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I'm tempted to say it's hard to appreciate just how difficult Hodgkin's work, complex crystallography in the pre-computer age, was.
Insight and imagination taken for granted, but an unbelieveable amount of endless hard work and tedious calculation.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Jude
Jude
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Keeping a catalogue of these women scientists whom I never heard about growing up (or after). It would have been (and is) inspiring to know we had mentors.

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