WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.419 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are opening 00:00:02.419 --> 00:00:05.980 the file on a scientist whose career, well, it 00:00:05.980 --> 00:00:07.960 wasn't really defined by a single flash of genius, 00:00:08.099 --> 00:00:11.919 but by something much rarer. 35 years of relentless, 00:00:12.119 --> 00:00:15.419 methodical patience. Exactly. We're diving into 00:00:15.419 --> 00:00:18.120 the atomic architecture of life itself. And we're 00:00:18.120 --> 00:00:20.160 following the trajectory of Dorothy Crowfoot 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:22.300 Hodgkin. We're examining the sources surrounding 00:00:22.300 --> 00:00:26.120 the life and the profound work of Dorothy Hodgkin. 00:00:26.219 --> 00:00:29.399 She was born in 1910. And, you know, she remains 00:00:29.399 --> 00:00:32.420 the only British woman scientist to win the Nobel 00:00:32.420 --> 00:00:35.340 Prize in chemistry. Which she won in 1964. That's 00:00:35.340 --> 00:00:37.799 right. And the material we've gathered really 00:00:37.799 --> 00:00:40.289 illustrates a career just dead. dedicated to 00:00:40.289 --> 00:00:43.390 transforming this one technique, x -ray crystallography, 00:00:43.609 --> 00:00:46.009 from a sort of theoretical curiosity into the 00:00:46.009 --> 00:00:48.409 essential method for structural biology. Okay, 00:00:48.509 --> 00:00:50.990 let's unpack that. Our mission here is to really 00:00:50.990 --> 00:00:53.429 get to grips with how a scientist who is often 00:00:53.429 --> 00:00:56.210 working through a debilitating illness and navigating 00:00:56.759 --> 00:00:58.920 I mean, intense Cold War political tensions. 00:00:58.960 --> 00:01:02.280 How she managed to map the precise three -dimensional 00:01:02.280 --> 00:01:05.560 structures of penicillin, vitamin B12, and then 00:01:05.560 --> 00:01:08.680 the big one, insulin. She didn't just study molecules. 00:01:08.939 --> 00:01:11.840 She gave us the blueprints to life -saving medicine. 00:01:12.079 --> 00:01:15.099 That phrase, blueprints to life -saving medicine, 00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:18.620 is exactly it. It's perfect. But before we can 00:01:18.620 --> 00:01:21.140 even begin to appreciate the scale of her molecular 00:01:21.140 --> 00:01:25.269 conquest, we have to establish the... the battlefield 00:01:25.269 --> 00:01:27.829 so to speak the technique it's a technique everything 00:01:27.829 --> 00:01:31.329 hodgkin achieved relied on her mastery of x -ray 00:01:31.329 --> 00:01:34.969 crystallography a technique so complex that it 00:01:34.969 --> 00:01:38.129 took her over three decades and frankly the invention 00:01:38.129 --> 00:01:40.689 of modern computers to fully realize its potential 00:01:41.319 --> 00:01:43.180 So let's nail this down first because it really 00:01:43.180 --> 00:01:45.239 is the foundation of her entire legacy. We know 00:01:45.239 --> 00:01:47.159 the basics. You shoot x -rays at crystals. A 00:01:47.159 --> 00:01:49.459 pattern is created. But for an audience that 00:01:49.459 --> 00:01:51.980 gets the fundamentals of chemistry, what was 00:01:51.980 --> 00:01:54.219 the technical hurdle that made applying this 00:01:54.219 --> 00:01:56.879 to complex biological stuff so revolutionary? 00:01:57.200 --> 00:01:59.180 Well, the initial hurdle wasn't really about 00:01:59.180 --> 00:02:01.379 collecting the x -ray data. That part was, I 00:02:01.379 --> 00:02:03.719 mean, difficult but understood. It was the interpretation. 00:02:04.040 --> 00:02:06.299 It was all about interpretation. When x -rays 00:02:06.299 --> 00:02:09.280 hit the regularly arranged atoms inside a crystal, 00:02:09.479 --> 00:02:12.340 they scatter or diffract. In this diffraction 00:02:12.340 --> 00:02:15.199 pattern, it looks like a series of spots on a 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:18.620 piece of photographic film. Now, the intensity 00:02:18.620 --> 00:02:20.340 of those spots, how bright they are in their 00:02:20.340 --> 00:02:22.759 location, that contains all the information about 00:02:22.759 --> 00:02:25.560 where every single atom is. So the pattern is 00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:28.919 the key. But how on earth do you go from a flat 00:02:28.919 --> 00:02:32.319 two -dimensional pattern of dots to a, you know, 00:02:32.340 --> 00:02:34.800 a three -dimensional model of a hugely complex 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:37.379 molecule like a protein? That's the million -dollar 00:02:37.379 --> 00:02:39.699 question. And it requires the most challenging 00:02:39.699 --> 00:02:42.240 step in crystallography, which is solving what's 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:44.219 known as the phase problem. The phase problem. 00:02:44.259 --> 00:02:46.780 Right. When light, or in this case x -rays, is 00:02:46.780 --> 00:02:48.919 scattered, you can measure the intensity of the 00:02:48.919 --> 00:02:50.500 scattered waves. You can see how bright the spot 00:02:50.500 --> 00:02:52.900 is. Okay. But you lose the information about 00:02:52.900 --> 00:02:56.330 the phase of that wave. And the phase is... Essentially, 00:02:56.349 --> 00:02:58.150 it's the timing or the starting point of that 00:02:58.150 --> 00:03:01.129 wave relative to all the others. So without the 00:03:01.129 --> 00:03:02.889 phase, you have all the ingredients, but you 00:03:02.889 --> 00:03:05.569 have absolutely no recipe for how to assemble 00:03:05.569 --> 00:03:07.889 the molecule. Exactly. You said it perfectly. 00:03:08.810 --> 00:03:11.370 Mathematically, to reconstruct the electron cloud 00:03:11.370 --> 00:03:13.870 of the molecule, you have to sum up a whole series 00:03:13.870 --> 00:03:16.490 of waves. It's a process called a Fourier transform. 00:03:16.789 --> 00:03:18.870 Right. But if you don't know the phase of those 00:03:18.870 --> 00:03:22.879 waves, the resulting map is just... It's garbage. 00:03:23.180 --> 00:03:27.379 It's meaningless. And Hodgkin's genius, her real 00:03:27.379 --> 00:03:31.240 contribution, lay in finding clever ways to determine 00:03:31.240 --> 00:03:34.439 or at least estimate those phases for bigger 00:03:34.439 --> 00:03:36.280 and bigger molecules. And the result of that 00:03:36.280 --> 00:03:39.020 is these three -dimensional contour maps of electron 00:03:39.020 --> 00:03:42.030 density. Yes, which allow you to pinpoint exactly 00:03:42.030 --> 00:03:44.229 where the atoms are sitting. This is why her 00:03:44.229 --> 00:03:46.949 work was so essential. She didn't invent crystallography, 00:03:47.150 --> 00:03:49.550 but you could say she invented the methods that 00:03:49.550 --> 00:03:51.909 made it work for biology. That sets the stage 00:03:51.909 --> 00:03:54.030 perfectly. She was dealing with a structural 00:03:54.030 --> 00:03:56.509 problem, a mathematical problem, and a computational 00:03:56.509 --> 00:03:59.150 problem all at once. And a personal one, as we'll 00:03:59.150 --> 00:04:01.650 see. Let's move into part one then. The Architect 00:04:01.650 --> 00:04:04.879 of Atoms. Her early life and influences, because 00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:07.180 it really seems like her formative years instilled 00:04:07.180 --> 00:04:09.800 the exact kind of detailed pattern recognition 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:12.879 she would need later on. Absolutely. Dorothy 00:04:12.879 --> 00:04:15.960 Mary Crowfoot was born in Cairo, Egypt in 1910. 00:04:16.139 --> 00:04:19.339 Her parents, John Winter Crowfoot and Grace Mary 00:04:19.339 --> 00:04:22.180 Hood, everyone called her Molly. They were deeply 00:04:22.180 --> 00:04:24.839 involved in colonial administration and later. 00:04:25.740 --> 00:04:28.379 So they were based in North Africa and the Middle 00:04:28.379 --> 00:04:31.500 East. Yes, which meant her childhood was, to 00:04:31.500 --> 00:04:34.579 say the least, unusual. Nomadic, really. The 00:04:34.579 --> 00:04:36.620 sources say she spent a lot of her early years 00:04:36.620 --> 00:04:38.439 separated from her parents, staying with her 00:04:38.439 --> 00:04:41.300 grandparents near Worthing in England. That sounds 00:04:41.300 --> 00:04:43.699 quite isolating. It could have been, but the 00:04:43.699 --> 00:04:46.139 sources suggest a very strong intellectual influence, 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:48.600 especially from her mother, Molly. Okay, tell 00:04:48.600 --> 00:04:51.180 me about Molly. Molly was a very proficient, 00:04:51.180 --> 00:04:54.480 dedicated botanist, and she really fostered Dorothy's 00:04:54.480 --> 00:04:57.180 innate curiosity. She didn't just, you know, 00:04:57.180 --> 00:04:59.100 encourage an interest in science. She provided 00:04:59.100 --> 00:05:02.399 the critical early tools. At age 10, Dorothy 00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:04.860 was already fascinated by crystals. She was growing 00:05:04.860 --> 00:05:07.899 them. And then for her 16th birthday, Molly gave 00:05:07.899 --> 00:05:10.699 her a copy of W .H. Bragg's seminal work concerning 00:05:10.699 --> 00:05:13.360 the nature of things. And Bragg, of course, was 00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:16.100 one of the absolute pioneers of X -ray diffraction. 00:05:16.680 --> 00:05:19.040 So that gift wasn't just a book. It was a roadmap. 00:05:19.300 --> 00:05:22.319 It was a signpost. It solidified her career path 00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:24.819 almost instantly. She wrote about it years later, 00:05:24.899 --> 00:05:27.560 about the clarity of that moment. But before 00:05:27.560 --> 00:05:30.540 she fully committed to chemistry and X -ray analysis, 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:33.680 there was this fascinating detour. Into archaeology. 00:05:33.819 --> 00:05:36.560 Yes, which if you look at it structurally, it 00:05:36.560 --> 00:05:39.060 looks exactly like her later scientific work. 00:05:39.139 --> 00:05:41.000 It's incredible. Tell us about that. This feels 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:43.600 like a real key to understanding her mind. Well, 00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:46.879 in 1928, at the age of 18, Hodgkin went to join 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:49.339 her parents at an archaeological site. It was 00:05:49.339 --> 00:05:52.899 Jerash, in what is now Jordan. The site was filled 00:05:52.899 --> 00:05:55.839 with ancient Roman and Byzantine ruins. And what 00:05:55.839 --> 00:05:58.560 was her job there? Her job was incredibly rigorous. 00:05:58.879 --> 00:06:01.579 She was tasked with documenting the Byzantine 00:06:01.579 --> 00:06:03.879 era mosaics from these fifth and sixth century 00:06:03.879 --> 00:06:05.980 churches. And these things are just incredibly 00:06:05.980 --> 00:06:07.980 intricate. So she was essentially performing 00:06:07.980 --> 00:06:10.100 a kind of pre -chemical structural analysis. 00:06:10.500 --> 00:06:12.879 Precisely. She spent over a year creating these 00:06:12.879 --> 00:06:15.920 precise, measured scale drawings of incredibly 00:06:15.920 --> 00:06:18.740 complex and often fragmented floor patterns. 00:06:19.019 --> 00:06:22.300 Piece by piece. Piece by piece. Tessera by tessera. 00:06:22.459 --> 00:06:25.639 It requires an intense, almost obsessive focus 00:06:25.639 --> 00:06:29.600 on pattern. on detail, on symmetry, and on reconstruction 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:33.019 from partial data. She was decoding the blueprint 00:06:33.019 --> 00:06:36.199 of ancient stones. Yes, which required the exact 00:06:36.199 --> 00:06:38.879 same mental muscle she would later use to decode 00:06:38.879 --> 00:06:41.519 electron density maps. She even did chemical 00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:44.779 analyses on the little glass tesserae to understand 00:06:44.779 --> 00:06:47.680 their composition. The sources say she enjoyed 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:49.939 it so much, she actually considered switching 00:06:49.939 --> 00:06:53.040 to archaeology for good. That's a profound thought, 00:06:53.120 --> 00:06:55.339 isn't it? The greatest structural chemist of 00:06:55.339 --> 00:06:58.019 her generation almost became an archaeologist. 00:06:58.240 --> 00:07:01.199 It's an amazing sliding doors moment. But thankfully 00:07:01.199 --> 00:07:03.459 for science, she stepped with chemistry, though 00:07:03.459 --> 00:07:05.459 she still had to overcome these early institutional 00:07:05.459 --> 00:07:07.959 barriers. Right. The entry requirements for university. 00:07:08.240 --> 00:07:10.540 She did. Her school, the Sir John Lehman Grammar 00:07:10.540 --> 00:07:13.199 School, it didn't teach Latin. And back then, 00:07:13.300 --> 00:07:15.519 Latin was a non -negotiable requirement for getting 00:07:15.519 --> 00:07:17.839 into Oxford or Cambridge. So what did she do? 00:07:18.170 --> 00:07:20.410 Her headmaster had to personally give her private 00:07:20.410 --> 00:07:22.589 Latin tuition so she could pass the entrance 00:07:22.589 --> 00:07:26.189 exam. It just highlights how arbitrary and frankly 00:07:26.189 --> 00:07:28.889 gendered the hurdles were for aspiring female 00:07:28.889 --> 00:07:31.350 scientists at that time. But she cleared them. 00:07:31.529 --> 00:07:34.089 She got into Somerville College at Oxford in 00:07:34.089 --> 00:07:38.470 1928 and graduated in 1932 with a first class 00:07:38.470 --> 00:07:40.709 honors degree in chemistry. And she was one of 00:07:40.709 --> 00:07:42.970 only three women at the institution to achieve 00:07:42.970 --> 00:07:45.389 that distinction at the time. A huge achievement. 00:07:46.160 --> 00:07:48.420 But the real scientific revolution for her started 00:07:48.420 --> 00:07:50.720 when she left Oxford. When she went to Cambridge. 00:07:50.920 --> 00:07:53.180 That's right. She immediately went to Cambridge 00:07:53.180 --> 00:07:55.699 to start her Ph .D. at Newnham College under 00:07:55.699 --> 00:07:58.699 a man named John Desmond Bernal. He was often 00:07:58.699 --> 00:08:01.639 known simply as the sage. And Bernal wasn't just 00:08:01.639 --> 00:08:04.220 your supervisor, was he? No. He was a catalyst 00:08:04.220 --> 00:08:06.639 for her entire worldview, scientifically, politically, 00:08:06.959 --> 00:08:09.560 and personally. They were lovers for a time before 00:08:09.560 --> 00:08:12.220 her marriage. So how deep was his influence and 00:08:12.220 --> 00:08:15.139 why was he so pivotal for her research? Bernal... 00:08:15.339 --> 00:08:17.779 was a visionary he was one of the few people 00:08:17.779 --> 00:08:20.160 who believed that x -ray crystallography could 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:23.000 be applied not just to simple salts or minerals 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:27.579 but to the massive complicated machinery of life 00:08:27.579 --> 00:08:30.819 itself proteins which was a very controversial 00:08:30.819 --> 00:08:32.860 idea at the time most people thought proteins 00:08:32.860 --> 00:08:36.120 were just biological sludge A lot of chemists 00:08:36.120 --> 00:08:38.340 did, yes. They thought they were too irregular, 00:08:38.600 --> 00:08:41.259 too amorphous to ever form crystals suitable 00:08:41.259 --> 00:08:44.039 for X -ray diffraction. Bernal thought differently. 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:47.299 He did. And Hodgkin worked with him on the technique's 00:08:47.299 --> 00:08:50.019 very first application to a crystalline protein, 00:08:50.440 --> 00:08:53.960 pepsin. Pepsin's a digestive enzyme. Bernal took 00:08:53.960 --> 00:08:56.860 the initial, very rough X -ray photographs. And 00:08:56.860 --> 00:08:58.700 what did those first pictures show? They showed 00:08:58.700 --> 00:09:01.820 spots. Clear, defined diffraction spots. This 00:09:01.820 --> 00:09:03.960 was a moment of utter revelation. It proved they 00:09:03.960 --> 00:09:06.600 weren't just goo. It proved definitively that 00:09:06.600 --> 00:09:09.019 protein molecules were orderly, three -dimensional 00:09:09.019 --> 00:09:11.120 structures with repeating internal patterns. 00:09:11.360 --> 00:09:14.220 They weren't amorphous at all. Hodgkin is credited 00:09:14.220 --> 00:09:16.659 with extending this foundational work, and that 00:09:16.659 --> 00:09:19.159 moment, the pepsin experiment, that was a birth 00:09:19.159 --> 00:09:21.419 certificate of structural biology as a discipline. 00:09:21.679 --> 00:09:24.019 It's incredible. She was there at the very beginning 00:09:24.019 --> 00:09:25.639 of the field she would later come to dominate. 00:09:26.090 --> 00:09:28.909 And yet she eventually returned to Oxford, which 00:09:28.909 --> 00:09:31.009 became her scientific home for the rest of her 00:09:31.009 --> 00:09:34.309 life. She did. In 1933, she was awarded a research 00:09:34.309 --> 00:09:36.809 fellowship by Somerville College. She went back 00:09:36.809 --> 00:09:39.470 the next year, set up a small lab, started teaching 00:09:39.470 --> 00:09:42.789 chemistry. And by 1936, she was appointed the 00:09:42.789 --> 00:09:45.350 college's first fellow and tutor in chemistry, 00:09:45.629 --> 00:09:48.809 a position she held for over 40 years. That stability 00:09:48.809 --> 00:09:51.960 must have been crucial. It was. That stability 00:09:51.960 --> 00:09:55.159 at Oxford allowed her to focus on the long, decade 00:09:55.159 --> 00:09:57.019 -spanning projects that would come to define 00:09:57.019 --> 00:09:59.720 her entire career. And before we leave this crucial 00:09:59.720 --> 00:10:02.960 period, we have to acknowledge this really unlikely 00:10:02.960 --> 00:10:05.879 academic connection she forged in the 1940s, 00:10:05.879 --> 00:10:08.840 a relationship that crosses the, well, the great 00:10:08.840 --> 00:10:11.340 political chasm of modern Britain. It's one of 00:10:11.340 --> 00:10:13.600 the great historical footnotes, isn't it? Margaret 00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:15.600 Roberts. Who would later become Margaret Thatcher. 00:10:15.700 --> 00:10:17.600 That's the one. She was Hodgkin's undergraduate 00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:21.539 student from 1943 to 1947, and Hodgkin had a 00:10:21.539 --> 00:10:23.860 profound effect on Thatcher's scientific training. 00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:26.879 The ultimate Tory prime minister learning chemistry 00:10:26.879 --> 00:10:30.950 from a committed, lifelong socialist. What does 00:10:30.950 --> 00:10:32.730 that tell us about their professional dynamic? 00:10:33.049 --> 00:10:35.529 I think it speaks volumes about mutual respect 00:10:35.529 --> 00:10:38.529 in the pursuit of knowledge. Hodgkin was a lifelong 00:10:38.529 --> 00:10:41.129 Labor Party supporter. Her husband was even in 00:10:41.129 --> 00:10:43.769 the Communist Party for a while. And Thatcher, 00:10:43.909 --> 00:10:47.110 well, she became the figurehead of modern conservatives. 00:10:47.210 --> 00:10:49.929 That complete political opposition. And yet Thatcher 00:10:49.929 --> 00:10:53.470 held Hodgkin in such high regard that years later 00:10:53.470 --> 00:10:56.340 she commissioned a portrait of her. and hung 00:10:56.340 --> 00:10:58.559 it prominently in her Downing Street office. 00:10:58.899 --> 00:11:01.559 Wow. They may have disagreed fundamentally on 00:11:01.559 --> 00:11:03.980 how society should be governed, but they absolutely 00:11:03.980 --> 00:11:06.940 agreed on the fundamental rigor of science. It's 00:11:06.940 --> 00:11:09.220 a powerful testament to the idea that scientific 00:11:09.220 --> 00:11:12.720 truth can sometimes transcend political ideology. 00:11:13.100 --> 00:11:15.600 That sets the stage perfectly for the paradoxes 00:11:15.600 --> 00:11:17.720 in her later life, which we'll get to when we 00:11:17.720 --> 00:11:20.120 cover her peace activism. But first, let's jump 00:11:20.120 --> 00:11:22.620 into the actual core breakthroughs. Part two, 00:11:22.740 --> 00:11:24.860 the core discoveries, charting the path from 00:11:24.860 --> 00:11:27.549 steroids to the Nobel Prize. Her journey really 00:11:27.549 --> 00:11:30.389 began with her PhD research on sterols, which 00:11:30.389 --> 00:11:32.830 are a class of steroids. After she earned her 00:11:32.830 --> 00:11:35.909 PhD in 1937, she just kept going with this work. 00:11:36.110 --> 00:11:39.549 And by 1945, working very closely with C .H., 00:11:39.549 --> 00:11:42.970 Harry Carlyle, she achieved her first major structural 00:11:42.970 --> 00:11:45.389 success. Which was the structure of cholesterol 00:11:45.389 --> 00:11:48.029 iodide. That's it. So why was that particular 00:11:48.029 --> 00:11:51.070 structure so important? Because it was the first 00:11:51.070 --> 00:11:53.590 ever three -dimensional biomolecular structure 00:11:53.590 --> 00:11:56.889 of a steroid determined using X -ray. crystallography. 00:11:57.730 --> 00:12:00.529 Steroids are these complex, bulky molecules, 00:12:00.929 --> 00:12:03.110 you know, hormones like testosterone, cholesterol. 00:12:03.389 --> 00:12:06.330 Right. And successfully mapping the full 3D geometry 00:12:06.330 --> 00:12:08.889 of one of them demonstrated to the entire scientific 00:12:08.889 --> 00:12:11.250 community that X -ray crystallography was a viable 00:12:11.250 --> 00:12:14.470 tool for complex organic compounds. It proved 00:12:14.470 --> 00:12:16.750 the method had graduated from simple salts to, 00:12:16.850 --> 00:12:19.169 you know, biologically relevant molecules. And 00:12:19.169 --> 00:12:21.509 the very next molecule she tackled was immediately 00:12:21.509 --> 00:12:23.850 relevant to the global conflict that was underway 00:12:23.850 --> 00:12:26.299 at the time, penicillin. The urgency couldn't 00:12:26.299 --> 00:12:28.059 have been higher. This was during World War II. 00:12:28.200 --> 00:12:30.580 The life -saving potential of penicillin was 00:12:30.580 --> 00:12:34.240 obvious, but to manufacture it, to modify it, 00:12:34.299 --> 00:12:36.820 you had to know its exact structure. It became 00:12:36.820 --> 00:12:40.379 a critical, highly secretive wartime project. 00:12:40.559 --> 00:12:45.539 It did in 1945. And Hodgkin and her team, which 00:12:45.539 --> 00:12:47.840 notably included a brilliant scientist named 00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:50.200 Barbara Lowe, they were the ones who solved the 00:12:50.200 --> 00:12:52.919 structure. Now, this is where this specific chemical 00:12:52.919 --> 00:12:55.450 detail really matters. Why was the structure 00:12:55.450 --> 00:12:58.750 so hotly debated? And what did Hodgkin's crystallography 00:12:58.750 --> 00:13:01.669 reveal that finally settled the argument? Well, 00:13:01.710 --> 00:13:03.789 the scientific community, especially the synthetic 00:13:03.789 --> 00:13:06.149 organic chemists, they were completely split. 00:13:06.409 --> 00:13:09.350 The two main proposed structures for penicillin 00:13:09.350 --> 00:13:12.269 had fundamentally different cores. One involved 00:13:12.269 --> 00:13:15.070 a simple thiazolidine ring structure, but the 00:13:15.070 --> 00:13:17.289 other one, which was supported by Hodgkin's data, 00:13:17.509 --> 00:13:20.509 contained this four -membered, highly reactive 00:13:20.509 --> 00:13:23.309 structure called a baloctam ring. And why was 00:13:23.309 --> 00:13:26.049 that so common? Because the ball -lactam ring 00:13:26.049 --> 00:13:29.269 is chemically unstable. It's strained, it's reactive, 00:13:29.450 --> 00:13:31.529 which is precisely why penicillin works. That 00:13:31.529 --> 00:13:34.870 reactivity is what lets it attack bacterial cell 00:13:34.870 --> 00:13:37.870 walls and interrupt their synthesis. Hodgkin's 00:13:37.870 --> 00:13:40.149 structural map confirmed the presence of this 00:13:40.149 --> 00:13:43.149 unstable ring, and in doing so, it proved the 00:13:43.149 --> 00:13:45.490 structural model championed by Robert Robinson, 00:13:45.649 --> 00:13:47.950 who had actually been an initial skeptic. So 00:13:47.950 --> 00:13:50.409 she provided the definitive proof. The structural 00:13:50.409 --> 00:13:53.190 key that told synthetic chemists exactly what 00:13:53.190 --> 00:13:56.269 they needed to recreate and eventually modify 00:13:56.269 --> 00:13:58.429 to produce newer generations of antibiotics. 00:13:58.690 --> 00:14:01.860 That's it. Without knowing that precise spatial 00:14:01.860 --> 00:14:04.460 arrangement, large -scale synthesis would have 00:14:04.460 --> 00:14:06.460 been impossible, or at the very least far, far 00:14:06.460 --> 00:14:08.419 less efficient. And the work was completed in 00:14:08.419 --> 00:14:11.480 1945. It was, but because of the wartime secrecy 00:14:11.480 --> 00:14:13.919 and just the massive amount of data, the full 00:14:13.919 --> 00:14:17.340 publication didn't appear until 1949. And notably, 00:14:17.519 --> 00:14:20.200 it was published under her maiden name, Dee Crowfoot. 00:14:20.659 --> 00:14:23.000 It's incredible to think that the core chemical 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:25.360 secret of the world's first widely successful 00:14:25.360 --> 00:14:28.559 antibiotic was delivered by her team. And if 00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:31.440 penicillin was groundbreaking, the next target, 00:14:31.580 --> 00:14:35.480 vitamin B12, was her Everest. It truly was her 00:14:35.480 --> 00:14:37.620 structural Everest. This is the work that earned 00:14:37.620 --> 00:14:39.659 her the Nobel Prize, and it was a technical leap 00:14:39.659 --> 00:14:41.879 that Lawrence Bragg famously compared to breaking 00:14:41.879 --> 00:14:45.919 the sound barrier. She started on B12, or cobalamin, 00:14:46.080 --> 00:14:50.539 in 1948. So why was vitamin B12 so uniquely difficult? 00:14:50.639 --> 00:14:53.600 What made it a sound barrier moment? B12 was, 00:14:53.860 --> 00:14:57.080 by a huge margin, the largest, most structurally 00:14:57.080 --> 00:14:59.299 complex vitamin known at the time. How big are 00:14:59.299 --> 00:15:02.139 we talking? We're talking a tangled knot of 181 00:15:02.139 --> 00:15:05.279 atoms, a massive biological structure compared 00:15:05.279 --> 00:15:08.340 to penicillin. And most critically, previous 00:15:08.340 --> 00:15:10.860 attempts to solve the phase problem for molecules 00:15:10.860 --> 00:15:13.419 of this size had just completely failed. The 00:15:13.419 --> 00:15:16.120 computational power simply did not exist to process 00:15:16.120 --> 00:15:18.279 the hundreds of thousands of individual X -ray 00:15:18.279 --> 00:15:20.720 reflections. So the sheer size and the complexity 00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:23.190 were the immediate barriers. How did she bypass 00:15:23.190 --> 00:15:26.149 the phase problem for this monster of a molecule? 00:15:26.370 --> 00:15:28.789 This is where her genius for methodological innovation 00:15:28.789 --> 00:15:31.509 really shone through. She had a flash of insight. 00:15:31.669 --> 00:15:33.769 She realized the molecule contained a single 00:15:33.769 --> 00:15:37.409 heavy metal atom. Cobalt. The cobalt clue. Precisely. 00:15:37.980 --> 00:15:40.240 Compared to all the light atoms that make up 00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:42.220 the rest of the molecule, you know, carbon, nitrogen, 00:15:42.379 --> 00:15:45.720 hydrogen, the cobalt atom, with its high electron 00:15:45.720 --> 00:15:49.279 count, it scatters X -rays much, much more strongly. 00:15:49.539 --> 00:15:51.580 And she used that to her advantage. She used 00:15:51.580 --> 00:15:53.659 it to employ what's now called the heavy atom 00:15:53.659 --> 00:15:55.879 method. Can you elaborate on that method? Sure. 00:15:56.159 --> 00:15:59.399 A heavy atom acts like a fixed reference point. 00:15:59.679 --> 00:16:02.860 A massive beacon inside the crystal. Because 00:16:02.860 --> 00:16:05.399 the scattering contribution of that single heavy 00:16:05.399 --> 00:16:08.259 atom is so dominant, you can calculate its position 00:16:08.259 --> 00:16:11.159 relatively easily. I see. And once you know the 00:16:11.159 --> 00:16:13.879 exact phase contribution of that one atom, you 00:16:13.879 --> 00:16:16.059 can use some complex mathematics to estimate 00:16:16.059 --> 00:16:18.440 the phases of all the rest of the scattered X 00:16:18.440 --> 00:16:20.980 -ray waves. It effectively solves the phase problem 00:16:20.980 --> 00:16:23.360 for the entire structure. That's a profound shift 00:16:23.360 --> 00:16:26.679 in using a chemical feature of the molecule to 00:16:26.679 --> 00:16:29.450 solve a purely mathematical problem. it turns 00:16:29.450 --> 00:16:32.000 a limitation into a huge opportunity. It was 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:34.419 absolutely revolutionary. It proved that even 00:16:34.419 --> 00:16:36.759 massive biological structures could be forced 00:16:36.759 --> 00:16:39.539 to yield their secrets. Now, the work took years 00:16:39.539 --> 00:16:42.279 of painstaking measurement and calculation, often 00:16:42.279 --> 00:16:45.000 relying on these early punch card computing systems. 00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:48.320 A dawn of computing. It was. But the final resolved 00:16:48.320 --> 00:16:51.740 structure published in 1955 and 1956 was just 00:16:51.740 --> 00:16:54.860 unprecedented. And it was this detailed three 00:16:54.860 --> 00:16:58.139 -dimensional blueprint of B12 that led directly 00:16:58.139 --> 00:17:01.480 to her Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964. This 00:17:01.480 --> 00:17:03.720 ability to map structures provides the blueprint 00:17:03.720 --> 00:17:06.319 not just for understanding function but for chemical 00:17:06.319 --> 00:17:09.119 synthesis. It fundamentally changed how we approach 00:17:09.119 --> 00:17:12.200 complex pharmaceuticals. Which brings us perfectly 00:17:12.200 --> 00:17:14.599 to the next and longest chapter of her life. 00:17:15.069 --> 00:17:18.170 the quest for insulin. Ah, the 35 -year quest 00:17:18.170 --> 00:17:20.690 for insulin. This is the defining narrative of 00:17:20.690 --> 00:17:23.390 her entire career's tenacity. She received her 00:17:23.390 --> 00:17:25.769 first sample of crystalline insulin from Robert 00:17:25.769 --> 00:17:30.430 Robinson way, way back in 1934. 1934. Yes. And 00:17:30.430 --> 00:17:32.250 the fascination for her was immediate because 00:17:32.250 --> 00:17:34.309 of the hormone's profound and complex effect 00:17:34.309 --> 00:17:37.069 on human metabolism and its direct link to diabetes. 00:17:37.549 --> 00:17:40.829 25 years. That's a career within a career. I 00:17:40.829 --> 00:17:44.670 mean, if she had solved B12 by 1956, Why did 00:17:44.670 --> 00:17:47.150 insulin remain unconquerable for another decade 00:17:47.150 --> 00:17:49.990 and a half? It was pure complexity and computational 00:17:49.990 --> 00:17:53.450 limitation. Insulin is a small protein. It's 00:17:53.450 --> 00:17:56.390 made up of 51 amino acids, and they form this 00:17:56.390 --> 00:17:59.309 complex structure with two linked chains. So 00:17:59.309 --> 00:18:02.369 it's much bigger than B12. B12 had 181 atoms. 00:18:02.589 --> 00:18:05.690 Insulin has many hundreds more, especially when 00:18:05.690 --> 00:18:07.829 you factor in all the solvent molecules in the 00:18:07.829 --> 00:18:11.269 crystal. This complexity just created an impossibly 00:18:11.269 --> 00:18:13.750 dense electron cloud. The math required... to 00:18:13.750 --> 00:18:16.349 perform that Fourier transform on insulin must 00:18:16.349 --> 00:18:18.769 have been astronomical. It was beyond manual 00:18:18.769 --> 00:18:21.589 calculation. I mean, in the 1930s, crystallographers 00:18:21.589 --> 00:18:23.789 used these things called Beaver's Lips and Strips. 00:18:23.890 --> 00:18:26.250 They were small, pre -calculated Fourier coefficients 00:18:26.250 --> 00:18:29.390 to help perform the sums. A kind of manual calculator. 00:18:29.569 --> 00:18:32.190 Exactly. But even for a molecule of insulin size, 00:18:32.369 --> 00:18:34.109 you would need to perform millions of these sums 00:18:34.109 --> 00:18:36.849 by hand. It just wasn't feasible. They had the 00:18:36.849 --> 00:18:38.529 method, but they had to wait for the technology 00:18:38.529 --> 00:18:42.569 to mature. So the true breakthrough in 1969 wasn't 00:18:42.569 --> 00:18:45.359 some sudden chemical insight, but rather the 00:18:45.359 --> 00:18:47.859 necessary symbiosis between fundamental science 00:18:47.859 --> 00:18:50.910 and technological advancement. The arrival of 00:18:50.910 --> 00:18:53.609 high -speed digital computing. Absolutely. The 00:18:53.609 --> 00:18:56.769 mid to late 1960s saw that necessary leap in 00:18:56.769 --> 00:18:59.690 computing power and also refinement of the X 00:18:59.690 --> 00:19:02.329 -ray techniques themselves. This finally allowed 00:19:02.329 --> 00:19:05.109 Hodgkin and her large international team to tackle 00:19:05.109 --> 00:19:07.329 the mountain of calculations required to solve 00:19:07.329 --> 00:19:10.269 the phase problem and generate the accurate electron 00:19:10.269 --> 00:19:13.789 density maps. And in 1969, they did it. By 1969, 00:19:14.029 --> 00:19:16.329 they published the 3D structure of the insulin 00:19:16.329 --> 00:19:19.029 hexamer. The quest was over. And the impact of 00:19:19.029 --> 00:19:20.589 finally having that blueprint must have been 00:19:20.589 --> 00:19:22.930 enormous for diabetes research. It was instrumental 00:19:22.930 --> 00:19:25.750 on two major fronts. First, just understanding 00:19:25.750 --> 00:19:27.529 the structure allowed pharmaceutical companies 00:19:27.529 --> 00:19:29.430 to refine their methods for the mass production 00:19:29.430 --> 00:19:32.089 of naturally derived insulin. But second, and 00:19:32.089 --> 00:19:34.569 far more critical in the long run, the structure 00:19:34.569 --> 00:19:37.630 provided the precise location of every single 00:19:37.630 --> 00:19:41.160 atom. Scientists could then rationally alter 00:19:41.160 --> 00:19:43.440 the molecule structure. They could mutate amino 00:19:43.440 --> 00:19:46.900 acids or change the crystallization solvent to 00:19:46.900 --> 00:19:49.640 create improved drug options. Like longer acting 00:19:49.640 --> 00:19:52.500 or faster acting insulins. Exactly. For both 00:19:52.500 --> 00:19:56.039 type 1 and type 2 diabetes patients. She continued 00:19:56.039 --> 00:19:58.539 to work on this, advising laboratories all over 00:19:58.539 --> 00:20:01.359 the world, cementing her commitment to the real 00:20:01.359 --> 00:20:03.839 world application of structural science. For 00:20:03.839 --> 00:20:06.519 science was never siloed, was it? And that brings 00:20:06.519 --> 00:20:09.259 us naturally to the profound and sometimes challenging 00:20:09.259 --> 00:20:12.599 political dimensions of her life. Indeed. We've 00:20:12.599 --> 00:20:14.579 already established her lifelong commitment to 00:20:14.579 --> 00:20:16.880 the Labor Party, which contrasted so sharply 00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:19.339 with her famous former student Margaret Thatcher. 00:20:19.460 --> 00:20:21.480 But the political environment she operated in, 00:20:21.519 --> 00:20:24.039 particularly during the Cold War, placed her 00:20:24.039 --> 00:20:25.839 in frequent conflict with Western governments. 00:20:26.160 --> 00:20:29.119 And her husband, Thomas Hodgkin, he was an eminent 00:20:29.119 --> 00:20:31.160 historian. He was part of this narrative as well. 00:20:31.480 --> 00:20:33.660 Thomas was an intermittent member of the Communist 00:20:33.660 --> 00:20:37.099 Party. He spent significant time abroad, particularly 00:20:37.099 --> 00:20:39.920 in West Africa, advising figures like Ghana's 00:20:39.920 --> 00:20:42.559 President Kwame Nkrumah. And that association, 00:20:42.779 --> 00:20:45.299 combined with Dorothy's own deeply held beliefs 00:20:45.299 --> 00:20:48.240 about peace and social equality, drew the suspicion 00:20:48.240 --> 00:20:51.119 of U .S. authorities. It did. And this suspicion 00:20:51.119 --> 00:20:54.519 had very real, punitive consequences for her 00:20:54.519 --> 00:20:57.910 scientific life. Oh, absolutely. Due to her political 00:20:57.910 --> 00:21:00.509 activities and her husband's associations, the 00:21:00.509 --> 00:21:02.609 U .S. government banned her from entering the 00:21:02.609 --> 00:21:07.109 country in 1953. 1953. Imagine that. A scientist 00:21:07.109 --> 00:21:09.589 on the absolute cusp of the B -12 breakthrough 00:21:09.589 --> 00:21:12.009 barred from attending essential international 00:21:12.009 --> 00:21:14.890 conferences. For subsequent visits, she was only 00:21:14.890 --> 00:21:17.710 granted entry through a special CIA waiver. That 00:21:17.710 --> 00:21:19.789 puts into sharp relief the challenges faced by 00:21:19.789 --> 00:21:22.029 scientists trying to maintain international collaboration 00:21:22.029 --> 00:21:24.880 during the height of the Cold War. She was, in 00:21:24.880 --> 00:21:27.140 effect, a scientific bridge builder operating 00:21:27.140 --> 00:21:29.740 under continuous surveillance. That's the perfect 00:21:29.740 --> 00:21:32.740 description. Hodgkin deliberately and actively 00:21:32.740 --> 00:21:35.240 maintained her scientific contacts across the 00:21:35.240 --> 00:21:38.720 Iron Curtain. She had deep connections with crystallographers 00:21:38.720 --> 00:21:41.160 at the Institute of Crystallography in Moscow. 00:21:41.420 --> 00:21:44.640 She visited India regularly, and she established 00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:46.839 a really powerful relationship with a Chinese 00:21:46.839 --> 00:21:49.579 group who were also working on insulin. How often 00:21:49.579 --> 00:21:51.579 did she go to China? She visited China seven 00:21:51.579 --> 00:21:55.359 times between 1959 and 1993. That takes some 00:21:55.359 --> 00:21:58.240 serious commitment. especially given the geopolitical 00:21:58.240 --> 00:22:00.200 climate of the time. Her commitment to global 00:22:00.200 --> 00:22:03.339 science was unwavering. There is a particularly 00:22:03.339 --> 00:22:07.099 powerful anecdote from 1971. The Chinese group, 00:22:07.220 --> 00:22:09.859 who had been working in complete isolation, they 00:22:09.859 --> 00:22:12.200 had independently solved the structure of insulin. 00:22:12.539 --> 00:22:15.099 Wow. And for a moment, they'd achieved a resolution 00:22:15.099 --> 00:22:18.619 even higher than Hodgkin's own team. And Hodgkin, 00:22:18.700 --> 00:22:20.779 she recognized the brilliance of their achievement 00:22:20.779 --> 00:22:23.039 and worked tirelessly to try and integrate them 00:22:23.039 --> 00:22:25.200 into the global scientific community. But the 00:22:25.200 --> 00:22:27.180 political barrier... were just too high, even 00:22:27.180 --> 00:22:29.460 for a Nobel laureate. She served as president 00:22:29.460 --> 00:22:31.539 of the International Union of Crystallography 00:22:31.539 --> 00:22:35.660 from 1972 to 75, but she was unable to persuade 00:22:35.660 --> 00:22:38.400 the political authorities in China to allow their 00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:40.839 scientists to become members of the union or 00:22:40.839 --> 00:22:43.099 to attend its international meetings. So the 00:22:43.099 --> 00:22:45.789 data was shared. But the human connection was 00:22:45.789 --> 00:22:48.150 restricted. It was. It really shows the limits 00:22:48.150 --> 00:22:50.710 of science as a diplomatic tool when it's faced 00:22:50.710 --> 00:22:53.029 with hard state policy. And her motivation for 00:22:53.029 --> 00:22:55.329 all this, it was clearly fueled by the social 00:22:55.329 --> 00:22:57.779 conscience she inherited from her mother. That 00:22:57.779 --> 00:23:00.720 social conscience drove her profound concern 00:23:00.720 --> 00:23:03.619 about social inequalities and increasingly the 00:23:03.619 --> 00:23:06.960 devastating threat of nuclear war. This led her 00:23:06.960 --> 00:23:10.019 into what was really a major second career in 00:23:10.019 --> 00:23:12.900 peace activism. As president of the Pugwash Conferences. 00:23:13.079 --> 00:23:15.140 She served as president of the Pugwash Conference 00:23:15.140 --> 00:23:18.400 on Science and World Affairs from 1976 all the 00:23:18.400 --> 00:23:21.079 way to 1988. And the Pugwash conferences were 00:23:21.079 --> 00:23:23.480 crucial for bringing scientists from East and 00:23:23.480 --> 00:23:26.890 West together to discuss arms control. Her leadership 00:23:26.890 --> 00:23:29.289 there must have been incredibly valuable, given 00:23:29.289 --> 00:23:31.490 her established connections in Moscow and Beijing. 00:23:31.769 --> 00:23:34.069 Her integrity gave her credibility across all 00:23:34.069 --> 00:23:37.349 ideological lines. Her dedication to peace and 00:23:37.349 --> 00:23:40.890 disarmament was recognized in 1987 when she accepted 00:23:40.890 --> 00:23:43.170 the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet government. 00:23:43.450 --> 00:23:45.930 That's a significant honor. It was, and it came 00:23:45.930 --> 00:23:48.490 just a year before the signing of the Intermediate 00:23:48.490 --> 00:23:50.809 -Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which dramatically 00:23:50.809 --> 00:23:53.250 reduced the risk of nuclear confrontation in 00:23:53.250 --> 00:23:55.490 Europe. We should also briefly touch upon one 00:23:55.490 --> 00:23:58.849 highly unusual political entanglement that sort 00:23:58.849 --> 00:24:01.349 of underscores the risk of operating in these 00:24:01.349 --> 00:24:03.990 politically charged environments. The anecdote 00:24:03.990 --> 00:24:06.769 involving the Romanian dictator's wife. It's 00:24:06.769 --> 00:24:08.990 a layer of nuance that highlights the, well, 00:24:09.089 --> 00:24:11.150 the fraught reality of international scientific 00:24:11.150 --> 00:24:14.569 diplomacy. In her early 70s, Hodgkin agreed to 00:24:14.569 --> 00:24:16.829 write a foreword for an English edition of a 00:24:16.829 --> 00:24:19.420 scientific book. What was the book? It was titled 00:24:19.420 --> 00:24:22.980 Stereospecific Polymerization of Isoprene, and 00:24:22.980 --> 00:24:25.400 the book was published as the work of Elena Sulescu, 00:24:25.559 --> 00:24:28.619 the wife of Romania's communist dictator, Nicolae 00:24:28.619 --> 00:24:31.839 Hiescu. Hodgkin wrote positively about the author's 00:24:31.839 --> 00:24:34.359 outstanding achievements. But the reality was 00:24:34.359 --> 00:24:37.640 far less savory. Much less. After the overthrow 00:24:37.640 --> 00:24:41.119 of the Sayasu regime in 1989, it was completely 00:24:41.119 --> 00:24:43.720 exposed that Elena Sayasu's scientific credentials 00:24:43.720 --> 00:24:46.799 were entirely fraudulent. The work was ghostwritten 00:24:46.799 --> 00:24:49.339 for her by others. So Hodgkin was used. It was 00:24:49.339 --> 00:24:51.660 an incident that illustrated how political figures 00:24:51.660 --> 00:24:54.319 sometimes exploit the credibility of true scientists 00:24:54.319 --> 00:24:57.140 like Hodgkin for legitimacy. She was ultimately 00:24:57.140 --> 00:25:00.039 a brilliant but perhaps, you know, politically 00:25:00.039 --> 00:25:02.599 naive diplomat who just believed in universal 00:25:02.599 --> 00:25:05.519 human contact. It shows that even the most grounded 00:25:05.519 --> 00:25:07.920 scientists can get caught up in the machinations 00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:11.039 of global politics. Now let's pivot sharply to 00:25:11.039 --> 00:25:14.059 part four, resilience and recognition, because 00:25:14.059 --> 00:25:15.980 all these monumental achievements, the decades 00:25:15.980 --> 00:25:18.240 of calculation, the global travel, the political 00:25:18.240 --> 00:25:20.460 maneuvering, they were all accomplished while 00:25:20.460 --> 00:25:22.920 she battled a crippling physical adversary. This 00:25:22.920 --> 00:25:25.000 is perhaps the most humbling part of her story, 00:25:25.119 --> 00:25:27.700 her battle with rheumatoid arthritis. She was 00:25:27.700 --> 00:25:31.339 diagnosed at just 24 years old in 1934. The condition 00:25:31.339 --> 00:25:34.519 caused immense pain. aggressive swelling, and 00:25:34.519 --> 00:25:36.559 eventually distortion in her hands and feet. 00:25:36.740 --> 00:25:39.680 For a scientist whose entire life was defined 00:25:39.680 --> 00:25:42.579 by the precise manipulation of delicate crystals, 00:25:42.740 --> 00:25:45.660 fine instruments, and careful positioning of 00:25:45.660 --> 00:25:48.880 x -ray cameras, that diagnosis must have been 00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:52.500 just... It was an immediate physical obstacle 00:25:52.500 --> 00:25:55.400 to her work. The sources recount this particularly 00:25:55.400 --> 00:25:58.220 powerful, almost poignant image of her in the 00:25:58.220 --> 00:26:00.859 lab. What was that? Due to the increasing stiffness 00:26:00.859 --> 00:26:03.460 and deformity of her hands, she struggled to 00:26:03.460 --> 00:26:05.900 operate the main electrical switch on the x -ray 00:26:05.900 --> 00:26:07.980 equipment, a simple action that you'd need to 00:26:07.980 --> 00:26:10.400 do countless times a day. And what did she do? 00:26:10.680 --> 00:26:13.220 She didn't stop. Instead of abandoning the work, 00:26:13.279 --> 00:26:15.680 she improvised. She constructed a specific lever 00:26:15.680 --> 00:26:17.839 mechanism that allowed her to operate the switch 00:26:17.839 --> 00:26:20.440 using her shoulder or forearm, compensating for 00:26:20.440 --> 00:26:22.359 the lack of fine motor control in her hands. 00:26:23.319 --> 00:26:25.900 That image, the future Nobel laureate having 00:26:25.900 --> 00:26:28.279 to engineer a tool just to operate the tool that 00:26:28.279 --> 00:26:30.519 would unlock the structures of life, it's a symbol 00:26:30.519 --> 00:26:33.339 of her fierce determination. Her condition continued 00:26:33.339 --> 00:26:35.980 to worsen over time, didn't it, leading to severe 00:26:35.980 --> 00:26:38.400 deformities and the necessity of using a wheelchair 00:26:38.400 --> 00:26:41.599 in her later years. And yet her scientific output 00:26:41.599 --> 00:26:45.349 never ceased. Her persistence was absolute. She 00:26:45.349 --> 00:26:47.569 remained scientifically active, traveling the 00:26:47.569 --> 00:26:49.829 globe, mentoring students right up until her 00:26:49.829 --> 00:26:53.109 death in 1994. Her personal story of resilience 00:26:53.109 --> 00:26:56.049 is just inextricably linked to her scientific 00:26:56.049 --> 00:26:58.150 accomplishments. That incredible persistence 00:26:58.150 --> 00:27:00.670 was naturally matched by the magnitude of the 00:27:00.670 --> 00:27:03.390 honors she received. They truly reflected her 00:27:03.390 --> 00:27:06.190 global and historical impact. The Nobel Prize 00:27:06.190 --> 00:27:08.930 in Chemistry in 1964 for her work on vitamin 00:27:08.930 --> 00:27:11.809 B12 was, of course, the highest possible scientific 00:27:11.809 --> 00:27:14.950 honor. But the recognition went far beyond the 00:27:14.950 --> 00:27:17.829 academic community. In 1965, she was appointed 00:27:17.829 --> 00:27:21.029 to the Order of Merit. Which is a very rare personal 00:27:21.029 --> 00:27:23.430 distinction granted by the reigning British monarch 00:27:23.430 --> 00:27:25.910 for exceptional service. She was only the second 00:27:25.910 --> 00:27:28.329 woman ever to receive it. And she broke another 00:27:28.329 --> 00:27:30.549 significant gender barrier at the Royal Society 00:27:30.549 --> 00:27:34.750 later on. She did. In 1976, she became the first 00:27:34.750 --> 00:27:37.490 woman ever to receive the prestigious Copley 00:27:37.490 --> 00:27:40.250 Medal from the Royal Society, a highly respected 00:27:40.250 --> 00:27:43.190 award established way back in 1731. That's a 00:27:43.190 --> 00:27:45.579 big deal. It recognized her overall achievement 00:27:45.579 --> 00:27:48.000 in structural biology and placed her in the company 00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:50.279 of historical giants like Darwin and Einstein. 00:27:50.619 --> 00:27:53.160 She accumulated a long list of other major honors 00:27:53.160 --> 00:27:55.460 as well, didn't she? Absolutely. The Royal Medal 00:27:55.460 --> 00:27:58.819 in 1956, the Lomonosov Gold Medal from the Soviet 00:27:58.819 --> 00:28:01.640 Academy of Sciences in 1982, the Dalton Medal 00:28:01.640 --> 00:28:05.700 in 1981. The list goes on. Institutionally, she 00:28:05.700 --> 00:28:07.799 also served as chancellor of the University of 00:28:07.799 --> 00:28:10.940 Bristol from 1970 to 1988. And circling back 00:28:10.940 --> 00:28:13.859 to the Royal Society. Right. In 1982, she was 00:28:13.859 --> 00:28:16.099 the first woman fellow of the society to have 00:28:16.099 --> 00:28:18.519 her portrait included in their permanent collection. 00:28:18.819 --> 00:28:20.799 Let's talk about her nomenclature for a second 00:28:20.799 --> 00:28:23.640 because her various names, Crowfoot, Crowfoot 00:28:23.640 --> 00:28:26.299 Hodgkin, Hodgkin, they reflect the historical 00:28:26.299 --> 00:28:28.920 changes in how professional women were recognized 00:28:28.920 --> 00:28:31.500 at the time. It's a fascinating historical marker. 00:28:31.720 --> 00:28:34.039 Initially, she published exclusively as Dorothy 00:28:34.039 --> 00:28:37.539 Crowfoot. It wasn't until 1949, 12 years after 00:28:37.539 --> 00:28:40.039 her marriage, that she was persuaded to include 00:28:40.039 --> 00:28:42.519 her married name for her contribution to a book 00:28:42.519 --> 00:28:45.799 chapter on penicillin. And today. Today, different 00:28:45.799 --> 00:28:48.819 institutions use slightly different names. The 00:28:48.819 --> 00:28:51.039 Royal Society's celebrated fellowship is just 00:28:51.039 --> 00:28:54.460 named the Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship, while others, 00:28:54.480 --> 00:28:57.140 like the National Archives, use her full maiden 00:28:57.140 --> 00:29:00.859 and married names. Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin. 00:29:01.000 --> 00:29:03.660 It shows the complex transition in professional 00:29:03.660 --> 00:29:06.059 identity for women marrying during that era. 00:29:06.480 --> 00:29:08.940 But her most enduring legacy is perhaps not in 00:29:08.940 --> 00:29:11.539 the names on awards or publications, but in the 00:29:11.539 --> 00:29:13.799 institutional support she inspired for future 00:29:13.799 --> 00:29:16.079 scientists who are facing similar hurdles. That 00:29:16.079 --> 00:29:18.519 is the most profound part of her influence, I 00:29:18.519 --> 00:29:21.299 think. The Royal Society's Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship 00:29:21.299 --> 00:29:23.460 is designed specifically to support outstanding 00:29:23.460 --> 00:29:26.319 early career scientists who require a flexible 00:29:26.319 --> 00:29:28.339 working pattern due to personal circumstances. 00:29:28.720 --> 00:29:30.839 So things like parenting or caring responsibilities. 00:29:31.279 --> 00:29:33.319 Or, most poignantly, health -related reasons. 00:29:33.660 --> 00:29:36.049 It recognizes that brilliant science doesn't 00:29:36.049 --> 00:29:38.730 happen in a vacuum of perfect health or domestic 00:29:38.730 --> 00:29:41.849 support. It institutionalizes the recognition 00:29:41.849 --> 00:29:44.529 of the exact barriers she had to navigate throughout 00:29:44.529 --> 00:29:47.170 her entire life. It ensures that her legacy is 00:29:47.170 --> 00:29:49.670 not just about the molecules she mapped, but 00:29:49.670 --> 00:29:51.869 about the conditions under which structural science 00:29:51.869 --> 00:29:54.849 can thrive for everyone. And finally, Britain 00:29:54.849 --> 00:29:57.549 has commemorated her twice on stamps, placing 00:29:57.549 --> 00:30:00.849 her alongside true scientific titans. In 1996, 00:30:01.230 --> 00:30:03.569 as one of five women of achievement, and then 00:30:03.569 --> 00:30:06.690 again in 2010. Yes, and the 2010 set was particularly 00:30:06.690 --> 00:30:09.490 significant. It was celebrating the Royal Society's 00:30:09.490 --> 00:30:12.750 350th anniversary, and she was the only woman 00:30:12.750 --> 00:30:15.549 featured in a set of 10 stamps honoring the society's 00:30:15.549 --> 00:30:17.910 most illustrious members. Placing her permanently 00:30:17.910 --> 00:30:21.029 alongside figures like Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, 00:30:21.049 --> 00:30:23.279 and Ernest Rutherford. A remarkable testament 00:30:23.279 --> 00:30:26.299 to a truly impactful life. So what does this 00:30:26.299 --> 00:30:29.019 all mean? Our deep dive into Dorothy Hodgkin 00:30:29.019 --> 00:30:32.460 reveals a scientist whose genius, I think. really 00:30:32.460 --> 00:30:34.980 lay in her structural patience and her methodological 00:30:34.980 --> 00:30:37.980 innovation. She took X -ray crystallography and 00:30:37.980 --> 00:30:40.440 by overcoming the mathematical and the computational 00:30:40.440 --> 00:30:43.180 limitations. From the heavy atom method on B12 00:30:43.180 --> 00:30:45.339 to waiting decades for computers to be able to 00:30:45.339 --> 00:30:48.019 solve insulin. Right. She provided the essential 00:30:48.019 --> 00:30:49.900 blueprints for these life -saving molecules. 00:30:50.420 --> 00:30:53.740 And she did all of this while navigating a crippling 00:30:53.740 --> 00:30:56.019 illness and the treacherous ideological lines 00:30:56.019 --> 00:30:58.799 of the Cold War. Her 35 -year pursuit of insulin 00:30:58.799 --> 00:31:01.700 is the ultimate lesson, isn't it? She began with 00:31:01.700 --> 00:31:04.500 a question in 1934 that was, for all intents 00:31:04.500 --> 00:31:07.680 and purposes, technically unsolvable. The solution 00:31:07.680 --> 00:31:11.000 was unlocked in 1969, not by a sudden change 00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:13.640 in chemical understanding, but by the relentless 00:31:13.640 --> 00:31:16.039 refinement of technique coupled with the arrival 00:31:16.039 --> 00:31:18.559 of necessary computational power. It was a victory 00:31:18.559 --> 00:31:21.119 of enduring vision and really faith in technology. 00:31:21.420 --> 00:31:23.839 It was. And that leads us to our final provocative 00:31:23.839 --> 00:31:26.579 thought for you, the listener. Hodgkin showed 00:31:26.579 --> 00:31:28.119 us that the greatest breakthroughs sometimes 00:31:28.119 --> 00:31:31.220 require not just genius, but the humility to 00:31:31.220 --> 00:31:34.299 wait decades for technology to catch up to the 00:31:34.299 --> 00:31:38.259 theoretical ambition. So, which major biomedical 00:31:38.259 --> 00:31:40.819 breakthrough today? Perhaps understanding the 00:31:40.819 --> 00:31:43.019 precise, ultra -high -resolution structure of 00:31:43.019 --> 00:31:45.339 a misfolding protein implicated in Alzheimer's 00:31:45.339 --> 00:31:47.960 or Parkinson's, or modeling the exact dynamics 00:31:47.960 --> 00:31:50.700 of large viral complexes? Which one is currently 00:31:50.700 --> 00:31:53.000 stalled by technical limits, just waiting for 00:31:53.000 --> 00:31:56.420 a modern 35 -year quest of patience and computational 00:31:56.420 --> 00:31:59.119 dedication to unlock its secret? Something to 00:31:59.119 --> 00:32:01.240 consider as you digest this knowledge. Thank 00:32:01.240 --> 00:32:02.900 you for joining us for the Deep Dive. We'll see 00:32:02.900 --> 00:32:03.299 you next time.