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Hi everyone! Today we're going to remember who Dorothy Crawford-Hodgkin was and what did she

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achieve. Dorothy studied science all her life but she was specialized in chemistry. Thanks to her

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dishes spirit not only did she achieve a brilliant discovery but also an amazing group of them that

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won her the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964. Let's go back to 1910 when Dorothy

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was born. My interest in science, especially in chemistry, started when I

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was 10. At that age I was covering easy projects in my house and when I was 16 I

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wrote a book called The Nature of the Things, written by William H. Braque,

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novel in physics in 1950. That book dealt about the amazing experimental technique

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X-ray crystallography that allowed to see three-dimensional structure of a

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molecule and its atoms. Since I read the book I was much more interested. British

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women at that time, including me, were fighting for coeducation, a synopsis for

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University only admitted one female student for every five male students and

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in Cambridge one female student for every nine male students. Girls couldn't

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participate in debates or go to the restaurants unless accompanied by a boy.

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I got my studies in Oxford University and there I went to a conference given by

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John D. Bernal, considered one of the most important scientists of the 20th century,

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which inspired me. I decided to specialize in the field of X-ray crystallography and in order to do

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so I needed to move to Cambridge University and there get my doctoral thesis. X-ray crystallography

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was a great advance for scientists. From now on we could use this technique to

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study biological substances, from viruses to vitamins, and this caused a

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revolution in public health. When I finished my thesis I went back to

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Oxford and there I tried to figure out the structure of the insulin. The

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The molecule was so complicated that it took 34 years to rebuild its architecture.

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Later on I was married and I had three children.

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I needed to juggle with my family and my work because my husband was away all the week working

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in adult education in North England and later in Africa.

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When I was 28, doctors found me that I had rheumatoid arthritis and I have to spend most

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of my time in a wheelchair and I need to make delicate operations which involve with my

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work.

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But this didn't stop me searching more, because then I managed to reveal the three-dimensional

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structure of numerous important biomolecules that organoscapists couldn't decipher, such

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as cholesterol, visual vitamin or insulin. Then I was admitted in Royal Society of

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London, the most prestigious national scientific association that with 287

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years of history only choose a woman for the third time. One day I managed to work

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with Rosalind Franklin when I discovered the three-dimensional structure of the DNA,

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the most important molecule at that age. I was denied a visa to enter in the United

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States to attend scientific conferences because I had belonged to the Science

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for Peace, a group that included some communists, but later with the

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special permission of the Attorney General I was allowed. This was very

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important for me because in 1964 I was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for

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the determination of the structure of many biological substances by x-rays.

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The prize also got the honor to be granted alone and when I was 54 I was

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the third woman and the first British woman to win a Nobel Prize in science.

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Also, Oxford University awarded a first-class degree to a woman only for the third time in its history.

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Rheumatoid arthritis, which...

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When I was 28, doctors found me like that...

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Now, we could use this technique to study biological substances, to study...

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Ay no, mierda. Es que si no estoy haciendo algo me pongo nerviosa, párale y bórralo.

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This was very important for me because in 1964 I was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the determination of...

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Then, I was admitted in the Royal Society of London, the most prestigious national scientific

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association that, with 287 years of history, only chose a woman for the third time, then

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I was admitted in the Royal Society of London, the most prestigious national scientific.

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I decided to specialize in the field of X-ray crystallography, and in order to do so I needed

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to move to Cambridge University for getting my doctoral thesis.