The following article is derived from the course of science, written by Liu Du.
Nobel laureate Dorothy Hodgkin, known as "an old friend of the Chinese," is imaged from nobelprize.org
Editor's Note
In the field of medicine, we often hear about Hodgkin lymphoma, which commemorates the first description of the disease by the famous British pathologist Thomas Hodgkin. In fact, there was another prominent female scientist, also known as Hodgkin (full name Dorothy Hodgkin), who was related to Thomas Hodgkin, and hodgkin the elder Hodgkin was her great-grandfather by generation (Dorothy Hodgkin's husband's grandfather was Hodgkin's brother). In 1964, Hodgkin was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his analysis of molecular structures such as penicillin and vitamin B12. More importantly, she is an "old friend of the Chinese people" and has an indissoluble relationship with China.
Dorothy has visited China 8 times, according to today's number of times is not much, but at that time the Western world once blockaded China, did not allow Western scientists to enter China, in this case to visit China, is a risky move, Dorothy is not moved.
In that era of poverty and weakness, she actively advocated for the Chinese scientific research community in the international arena and won the respect she deserved.
At that time, China, which was in ruins and waiting to be revived, did not have the slightest say in the international scientific community, Chinese scientists were once not allowed to participate in international conferences and publish papers in international journals, Hodgkin, a sympathizer of the Eastern powers, became a "microphone" for China's scientific research achievements to show the world on many occasions, such as her introduction of China's crystalline bovine insulin achievements to the international community, and Under her recommendation, China was allowed to join the International Federation of Crystallography, before which Chinese scientists have been free from the "organization".
It is worth mentioning that Hodgkin's interest in the Eastern world and socialism may have a certain relationship with her husband Hodgkin and her mentor Bernard, who are also believers in communism.
Even as a wonderful woman, Dorothy suffered social discrimination and injustice at that time. How did this "female magician" change her life and society's perception of women through actions?
Written by | Liu Du (Distinguished Professor, Department of History of Science, Tsinghua University)
Editor-in-charge | Xu Jiaqian, Liu Yu
A portrait of British female biochemist and Nobel laureate in chemistry, Dorothy Hodgkin (1910-1994), now in the National Portrait Gallery, was completed in 1985 by Maggi Hambling, a contemporary British female painter and sculptor, at the age of 75 (see below).
Portrait of British female biochemist and Nobel laureate in chemistry, Dorothy Hodgkin (1910-1994).
According to the painter: "She is one of the most important and sincere figures of our time, and I want to convey her temperament through the picture, and in my opinion she is almost an ancient alchemist who makes magic." ”
Dorothy is busy in front of an oversized writing desk filled with papers, diagrams, and a model of insulin structure, the shelves behind her filled with books and archives, her hair fluttering exaggeratedly, and the four hands in front of her doing different things at the same time: writing with a pen in one hand, holding a magnifying glass in the other, holding up a picture in the other, and pointing to the data sheet laid out on the countertop. Get rid of the image of a female magician!
Of course, this painting is not a realistic depiction, but with a bit of public exaggeration of the prejudice that scientists do not trim the edges and do not eat human fireworks. In fact, Dorothy is a beautiful and dignified woman, who has her own love, friendship, family and social responsibilities outside of her scientific career.
Dorothy in the early 1960s
Elderly Dorothy
Dorothy, whose original surname was Crowfoot, was born in Cairo in 1910 to a family of education officials in a British colonial colony. Due to the hot weather in North Africa, Dorothy returns to England with her parents every summer and autumn.
When World War I broke out in 1914, Dorothy and her two sisters were left in Britain. She grew up and studied under the care of her grandparents and relatives, and was admitted to Oxford University in 1928 to study chemistry at Somerville College, which was then a female-only school.
In 1932, Dorothy went to Cambridge to register with Newnham, also a women's college, and studied and researched at the doctoral level with John Desmond Bernal (1901-1971) at Cavendish Laboratories.
Bernard is an authority on the new field of X-ray crystallography, and thanks to his efforts with a number of scientists, X-ray crystallography has become a tool widely used in the life sciences, playing a key role in determining the structure of biomolecular molecules.
Bernard was also a politically active member of the Communist Party of England. He was the spiritual leader of the left-wing intellectual clique active in Cambridge and London in the 1930s, and was known as the "sage".
Perhaps his interests were too broad to go further in the promising intersection of crystallography and molecular biology, and his students, subordinates, and colleagues produced several Nobel Laureates, the most prominent of which were his beloved apprentice and girlfriend Dorothy.
The picture below is a group photo of Dorothy and Bernard and others before World War II, and it can be seen that their relationship is very close.
Dorothy and Bernard (center), Nottingham, 1937
Dorothy with Bernard and friends, Oxford, 1939
Dorothy was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1947 and was awarded the Order of Merit by the British Royal Family in 1965. The previous year, Dorothy had won the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his achievements in confirming the structure of penicillin and deciphering the structure of vitamin B12.
Five years after winning the award, Dorothy deciphered the structure of insulin and is regarded as one of the pioneers in the study of the macromolecular structure of proteins using X-ray crystallography.
Despite her close ties to Bernard, Dorothy neither married him nor joined the Communist Party, although she also belonged to the more radical left politically. In 1937, Dorothy married her fellow Oxford historian Thomas Hodgkin (1910-1982), who was also a member of the British Communist Party but not as ideologically obsessed as Bernard.
Dorothy kept her surname for 12 years, until she was forced to use her husband's surname in 1949 because of the repeated insistence of a senior editor of the anthology, and it is said that on that day she said to her daughter: "Today I lost my surname." Today the general literature refers to her as Dorothy Hodgkin.
A pair of young idealists: Dorothy and her husband Thomas Hodgkin, Oxford, 1937
Dorothy and Thomas at the ball after the Nobel Prize ceremony, Stockholm, 1964
Dorothy has visited China many times and has had close exchanges with scientists at the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. She also made numerous trips to the Soviet Union and North Vietnam under U.S. warplanes, and served as an adviser to the Nkenu President Ma, Ghana, but was not popular with the U.S. government.
From 1976 to 1988, she chaired the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, an international anti-war organization that served as the mediator of major governments and the medium of information exchange during the Cold War, mostly by Western left-wing scientists, with Dorothy being the longest-serving president.
Dorothy works with Chinese biophysical (chemical)ists to view the crystal structure diagram of bovine insulin, Beijing, 1977
Dorothy's family life is harmonious, with Thomas having three children, and in his later years, his children and grandchildren are full of joy.
She also has many students, which can be described as peach and plum all over the world. One of the most famous students was Margaret Thatcher, who is said to have hung a portrait of her teacher at the Prime Minister's Residence in Downing Street during her tenure, a move that transcended ideology and won widespread praise from British public opinion.
Dorothy ascends the Great Wall, Beijing in 1980
Dorothy visits northern Vietnam with local female militiamen, 1971
Dorothy attends the International Conference on Science and World Affairs, followed by physicist and later Nobel Peace Prize laureate J. Rotblat in 1975, and Pagwash in 1975
After being elected to the Royal Society, he took a group photo with three children, 1947
Embrace your great-grandchildren and enjoy themselves
Left and Right: Dorothy talks cordially with her student, Margaret Thatcher, who has just left the Prime Minister, at the opening of Dorothy Hodgkin Court and Margaret Thatcher Hall at Somerville College, Oxford, 1991
concentrate:
[1] Image of this article is from The Biography of Dorothy Hodgkin (Ferry, Georgina.1998. Dorothy Hodgkin: A Life. London: Granta Books）。
[2] This article was originally titled "Tribute to Dorothy Hodgkin", published in Science and Culture Review, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2018.