“Captured for life by chemistry and by crystals,” as she described it, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin turned a childhood interest into the ground-breaking use of X-ray crystallography to “see” the molecules of penicillin, vitamin B12 and insulin. At the age of 14, while she was visiting her parents in North Africa, she found a shiny black mineral in the yard, which led to an interest in crystals, whose elegant shapes she admired. Two years later, she received a gift that greatly impacted her: a book by William Henry Bragg about using X-rays to analyse crystals. Hodgkin was one of two girls who petitioned to take chemistry rather than domestic science at school. Her perseverance paid off as she was able to study chemistry and pursue her interest in crystallography at Oxford University, where she began to investigate the three-dimensional structure of insulin. Upon the outbreak of World War Two, Hodgkin turned her attention to penicillin, which had the potential to cure infectious diseases. Mapping the structure of the new miracle drug’s 17 atoms over four years made manufacturing easier, helping it to save millions of lives during the conflict. Hodgkin then turned her attention to vitamin B12 – an essential weapon against anaemia - and mapped its 181 atoms in eight years. However, it took her 34 years of hard work to understand insulin’s 788 atoms. Her detailed map of insulin in 1969 allowed for vast improvements in the treatment of diabetes. Hodgkin’s work not only allowed researchers to better understand and manufacture life-saving substances, it also made crystallography an indispensable scientific tool. Learn more about her life: bit.ly/2VEXNvx