New Delhi, May 12 – Google Doodle has celebrated the 104th anniversary of Nobel laureate British chemist Dorothy Hodgkin. The chemist became the third woman to win the prestigious prize for discovering the molecular structure of vitamin B12.
The picture in the Doodle depicts the structure of penicillin molecule, which the gifted scientist had discovered using the technique of X-ray crystallography. She used large punch-card operated tabulators, predecessor to the modern computer, to analyse the patterns of the reflected X-rays.
Born in Egypt on May 12, 1910, she was awarded Nobel prize in 1964. She always loved crystals but she seriously began pursuing them after she read a book on crystal patterns on her 16th birthday. She graduated from Oxford University in 1932, and took 8 years to complete her work on vitamin B12.
She was a committed socialist and a member of the Communist party. In 1953, she was banned from entering the United States, although the ban was revoked later. She also taught former UK PM Margaret Thatcher. She died in 1994 at the age of 84.
-INDIA TODAY
