Dorothy Hodgkin

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.8K Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2019

⏱️ 52 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the work and ideas of Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910-1994), awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964 for revealing the structures of vitamin B12 and penicillin and who later determined the structure of insulin. She was one of the pioneers of X-ray crystallography and described by a colleague as 'a crystallographers' crystallographer'. She remains the only British woman to have won a Nobel in science, yet rejected the idea that she was a role model for other women, or that her career was held back because she was a woman. She was also the first woman since Florence Nightingale to receive the Order of Merit, and was given the Lenin Peace Prize in recognition of her efforts to bring together scientists from the East and West in pursuit of nuclear disarmament.

With

Georgina Ferry Science writer and biographer of Dorothy Hodgkin

Judith Howard Professor of Chemistry at Durham University

and

Patricia Fara Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:04.8	Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time.
0:07.3	There's a reading list to go with it on our website, and you can get news about our
0:10.7	programs if you follow us on Twitter at BBC In Our Time.
0:14.7	I hope you enjoyed the programs.
0:16.8	Hello, in 1964 Dorothy Hodgkin became the first British woman to win a Nobel Prize in
0:21.6	Science and so far, the only one.
0:24.0	It was in chemistry, and the award was specifically, quote, for her determinations by X-ray
0:28.9	techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances, namely penicillin and vitamin
0:34.4	B12.
0:35.4	And to these, she later added insulin.
0:38.3	Her discoveries helped with the manufacture of drugs for the treatment of infection, of
0:41.8	anemia and of diabetes.
0:43.6	And in the words of the pioneer in her field, Lawrence Bragg and other Nobel Prize winner,
0:48.0	her early achievements were, quote, the equivalent of breaking the sound barrier.
0:52.8	With me to discuss Dorothy Hodgkin's work in life, I'm Patricia Para, Pella of Playa
0:56.6	College, Cambridge.
0:57.8	Georgina Ferry, a science writer and biographer of Dorothy Hodgkin.
1:01.6	And Judith Hodg, for a Pesa Epchemistry at Durham University.
1:05.7	Judith Hodgkin was born in 1910.
1:09.3	What was remarkable about her childhood?
1:12.9	I think because she was born in Cairo in Egypt.
	...

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