Dorothy Hodgkin: Cracking crystal codes
Cholesterol, penicillin, vitamin B12...? Mike Sutton completes the list and explains the connection
The final item is insulin and the link is Dorothy Hodgkin, the English chemist who unravelled their molecular structures. Outside the lab, she was a committed political activist who raised three children - often in the absence of a busy husband - despite being increasingly handicapped by arthritis from her late 20s onwards. The very model of a modern multitasking mother, she was the calm centre of her bustling world, and her many acts of kindness were fondly remembered by former students and colleagues.