Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin: Patterns, Proteins and Peace: A Life in Science

by Georgina Ferry

Overview

*Shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize and the Marsh Biography Award*

The definitive biography of chemist Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, the only British woman to win a Nobel prize in the sciences to date.

Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910–1994) was passionate in her quest to understand the molecules of the living body. She won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1964 for her work on penicillin and Vitamin B12, and her study of insulin made her a pioneer in protein crystallography. Fully engaged with the political and social currents of her time, Hodgkin experienced radical change in women's education, the globalisation of science, relationships between East and West, and international initiatives for peace.

Georgina Ferry's definitive biography of Britain's first female Nobel prizewinning scientist was shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize and the Marsh Biography Award. This revised and updated edition includes a new preface from the author.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781448217601
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	01/07/2020
Pages:	560
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Georgina Ferry is a freelance science writer and broadcaster. She was formerly a staff editor on New Scientist magazine, and a presenter on Science Now and other programmes for BBC Radio 3 and 4. In 1989 she won the Glaxo Science Writers' Prize for her radio series, Seven Ages of Health. Her work has been published in a number of national newspapers, including the Independent, the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph, and she is Science Editor of Oxford Today. She lives in Oxford with her husband and two sons.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. 'It was a rather rackety childhood in a way'

Cairo and Norfolk, 1910-1928

2. 'Don' t you understand, I've got to know!'

Somerville and Oxford, 1928-1932

3. 'My years at Cambridge were rich with new discoveries'

J. D. Bernal and Cambridge, 1932-1934

4. 'It'll serve me absolutely right if the thing is all wrong'

Oxford, insulin and Thomas, 1934-1937

5. 'Nobody could be indifferent to the search for the truth about proteins'

Proteins and pregnancy, 1938-1939

6. 'All this penicillin racket you know…'

War and penicillin, 1939-1945

7. 'The molecule that appears is very beautifully composed'

America, Russia and Vitamin B12, 1946-1960

8. 'I seem to have spent much more of my life not solving structures than solving them'

The Nobel Prize and insulin, 1970-1969

9. 'Born not for herself but for the world'

China, Africa, India, education and peace, 1959-1988

10 'Recently everything has become more hopeful'

Retirement and after, 1977-1994

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

Select bibliography and sources

Notes

A Note on the Author

Index

Editorial Reviews

Ferry has brilliantly captured the flavour of a century of science” —New Scientist

“This life of Hodgkin is in the top rank of scientific biographies, hooking the reader from the first page and keeping you absorbed to the end” —Sunday Times

“This agreeable and well-written biography is the first to bring Dorothy Hodgkin to a wider audience. It deserves great success” —Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher

Hodgkin was wary of would-be biographers, referring to the efforts that she knew of as 'attempts on my life.' But she might have approved of Ferry's account, which is warm, balanced, carefully researched, and written in a clear and unobtrusive style. Many readers of this biography may be inspired to follow Thatcher's lead by hanging a portrait of this remarkable scientist and humanitarian near their desks.

American Scientist

Hodgkin (1910-94) remains the only British women ever to receive the Nobel Prize, which she did for her work on the structures of penicillin and vitamin B12. Science writer and broadcaster Ferry presents the first biography of her, combining discussions of her scientific work, her activism for peace and against colonialism, and her life as a partner and mother. Published by Granta UK (1998). Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

"This book, the 400-page biography of Dorothy Hodgkin, is a superb portrait, in fascinating detail, of the life-history, experiences and personality of this unique individual. The book is so well written, so readable and, in its style, so delightfully in harmony with the life being described, that it is a real treat to read, a fitting tribute to an outstanding and memorable person.

While the context of this book is the development of crystallography, during the initial three decades of its application to organic structures, the focus of the book is simply Dorothy herself—the person—how she started life, how she worked her way into a scientific career, battled against the odds that were stacked against women in those days, quietly established herself amongst the top echelon of structural crystallographers and eventually developed an international reputation and influence. Her crystallography was outstanding (it was Dorothy's first and most passionate love) but her personality is what many of us remember most."

International Union of Crystallography Newsletter