When I
opened my Chrome browser this morning, I was surprised to see a dot molecular
structure (invented by GN Lewis, whom CNR Rao described as the greatest chemist
of the 20th century).
Clicking Google’s logo, I found that May 12
was the birth anniversary of Dorothy Hodgkin, “who discovered the molecular structure
of insulin.” Wait a minute, I thought, Fred Sanger discovered the structure of
insulin – I wrote a memoriam blog about him, when he passed away last year. “She
was awarded the Nobel prize for discovering the structure of Vitamin B-12,”
Wikipedia continued. Wow, not quite GN Lewis, not Haber or Bosch or Parsons or Mahavira
or Lynn Margulis, but an accomplished woman scientist: and I had never heard of
her. Live and learn, I thought.
How is
her contribution different from Sanger’s, I wondered. This essay on Wellcome’swebsite explained : Sanger discovered the amino-acid
sequence of insulin, Hodgkin the molecular
structure. I urge you to read the article – the early experiments on dogs and
insulin is an eye opener.
Well
done, Google. Weller done, Dorothy. And thanks, on behalf of my father, who
lived several decades longer, because of your discoveries.
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