DOROTHYCROWFOOTHODGKIN
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1964
Photo: Emilio Segrè Visual Archives / American Institute of Physics/Science Source
“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. Her work not only allowed researchers to better understand and manufacture life-saving substances, it also made crystallography an indispensable scientific tool.
Detail from a model of vitamin B12 wet crystals, by Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, ca. 1959 Photo: The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum via https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin with her mother and sisters Courtesy of the Crowfoot family
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin in her late teens (in the 1920s) Courtesy of the Crowfoot family.
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin with her mother and sisters Courtesy of the Crowfoot family
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin in her late teens (in the 1920s) Courtesy of the Crowfoot family.
Born Dorothy Mary Crowfoot in 1910, Hodgkin was raised in England and colonial North Africa. As a child, she was fascinated with crystals; she loved the elegance of their geometric shapes. At age 14, she found a shiny black mineral in the yard while visiting her parents in North Africa, and she asked a family friend, soil scientist A. F. Joseph, if she could analyse it. Joseph gave her a surveyor’s box of reagents and minerals to encourage her.
At age 16, she received another present, one that would set her on her life’s path: a book by William Henry Bragg about using X-rays to analyse crystals.
At the Sir John Leman School in Beccles, England, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin and her friend Norah Pusey, in the back row, were the only two girls in the chemistry class. They had to petition to take chemistry rather than "domestic science" with the other girls. Courtesy of Sir John Leman School
X-ray crystallography allowed scientists to see the structure of molecules that had until then been visualised only in theory. The process involves beaming X-rays through a crystal onto a photographic plate, which records the scatter pattern caused by the interference of electrons surrounding the atoms. That process is repeated with a variety of selected orientations. Then a series of mathematical calculations is used to relate the spots on the plates to the relative arrangement of the atoms.
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (right) with Dina Fankuchen (left) and the chemist A. F. Wells (center), at Oxford, 1938 Photo: Emilio Segrè Visual Archives / American Institute of Physics/Science Source
When she was 18, Hodgkin enrolled at Oxford University to study chemistry and pursue her interest in crystallography. For her doctoral work, she joined the lab of J. D. Bernal, a Cambridge University chemist who believed in equal opportunity for women. He helped make crystallography one of the few physical sciences hiring significant numbers of women at that time. In 1934, Bernal photographed the first X-ray of a protein crystal, an achievement that proved organic molecules (and not just inorganic ones) could be crystallised.
Hodgkin wasn’t in the laboratory on the day of this breakthrough; she was at the doctor because of pain in her hands. Although she was diagnosed with chronic rheumatoid arthritis, she quickly returned to work. She never let the disease stop her, though her hands and feet grew increasingly swollen, twisted and painful.
Crystal structure model, made for the X-ray crystallographer Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, showing the structure of the hexacarbocylic acid fragment of Vitamin B12, 1957-1959 Photo: The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum via https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Inspired by the first X-ray of a protein crystal, Hodgkin soon began to investigate the three-dimensional structure of insulin. At this point, she was 24 and teaching chemistry back at Oxford University, with her own (albeit poorly equipped) lab.
Molecular model of penicillin by Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, ca. 1945 Photo: The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum via https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
She paused in her study of insulin to take on penicillin, a more urgent task in the World War II era; it took her four years to map the structure of its 17 atoms. Vitamin B12, which she tackled next, contains 181 atoms and took eight years to map. Eventually she conquered insulin; with 788 atoms, it took 34 years.
I believe in perfecting the world and trying to do everything to improve things, but not because I know what’s to come of it.
DOROTHY CROWFOOT HODGKIN
The almost insurmountable size of these tasks and the sheer volume of calculations they required turned Hodgkin into an early adopter of evolving technology.
Hodgkin believed in international scientific cooperation. During the Cold War, she insisted on including Chinese and Soviet scientists in organisations such as the International Union of Crystallography, which she helped found.
A letter from Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin to Linus Pauling, 22 November 1955 From the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers, Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives Research Center
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin with chemist and peace activist Linus Pauling, 1957 From the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers, Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives Research Center
A letter from Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin to Linus Pauling, 22 November 1955 From the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers, Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives Research Center
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin with chemist and peace activist Linus Pauling, 1957 From the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers, Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives Research Center
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (second from left) with Ivan Zupec and Linus and Ava Helen Pauling, 1977 From the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers, Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives Research Center
She was also a lifelong advocate for world peace, her conviction formed in part by her mother’s loss of all four brothers in World War I. She campaigned against both the Vietnam War and nuclear weapons.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher greets her former tutor, 78-year-old Professor Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, before a luncheon for Nobel Laureates at Downing Street, London, 14 April 1989 Photo: Tony Harris / PA Images / Getty Images
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin with Stephen Hawking, 17 July 1985, at the National Portrait Gallery in London Photo: PA Images / Getty Images
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher greets her former tutor, 78-year-old Professor Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, before a luncheon for Nobel Laureates at Downing Street, London, 14 April 1989 Photo: Tony Harris / PA Images / Getty Images
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin with Stephen Hawking, 17 July 1985, at the National Portrait Gallery in London Photo: PA Images / Getty Images
A letter from chemist and peace activist Linus Pauling recommending Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin for the Lenin Peace Prize, 7 January 1983 From the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers, Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives Research Center
A letter from chemist and peace activist Linus Pauling recommending Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin for the Lenin Peace Prize, 7 January 1983 From the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers, Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives Research Center
“How to abolish arms and achieve a peaceful world is necessarily our first objective,” she wrote in 1981. At that time, at age 71, she was president of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, established to address the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin with models and crystallography images of the molecules she studied Photo: Corbin O'Grady Studio/Science Source
Hodgkin’s life work had immediate implications for medical research. Mapping the structure of penicillin in 1945 made the miracle drug far easier to manufacture. Vitamin B12, which Hodgkin mapped in 1954, is an essential weapon against pernicious anaemia. Her detailed map of insulin in 1969 allowed for vast improvements in the treatment of diabetes. But her achievements resonated beyond their practical applications, expanding limits of X-ray crystallography and thus of scientific knowledge.
