1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:04,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:14,280 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. 3 00:00:14,400 --> 00:00:18,080 Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. Today we have another episode 4 00:00:18,160 --> 00:00:21,400 Speaker 1: inspired by my recent trip to England. While I was there, 5 00:00:21,440 --> 00:00:25,080 Speaker 1: I kept running into references to chemist Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin. 6 00:00:25,720 --> 00:00:28,400 Speaker 1: She was in the History of Science Museum in Oxford 7 00:00:28,600 --> 00:00:32,000 Speaker 1: and the Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum in London. And then 8 00:00:32,040 --> 00:00:35,640 Speaker 1: after I got home, I realized my phone had tagged 9 00:00:35,680 --> 00:00:38,600 Speaker 1: a bunch of pictures from the Oxford University Museum of 10 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:42,479 Speaker 1: Natural History and the Pitt Rivers Museum as being on 11 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:47,080 Speaker 1: Dorothy Hodgkin Road. It started to seem like the universe 12 00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:52,319 Speaker 1: was trying to tell me something. Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin has 13 00:00:52,360 --> 00:00:55,440 Speaker 1: come up on two of our previous episodes, the one 14 00:00:55,480 --> 00:00:58,320 Speaker 1: on the discovery of insulin and the one on the 15 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:02,400 Speaker 1: discovery of penicillin, because she earned the Nobel Prize in 16 00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:05,720 Speaker 1: Chemistry in nineteen sixty four for her use of X 17 00:01:05,800 --> 00:01:11,480 Speaker 1: ray crystallography to determine the structures of important biochemical substances, 18 00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:14,680 Speaker 1: including those two. By the end of her career, as 19 00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:18,640 Speaker 1: well as vitamin B twelve. These discoveries were a step 20 00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:22,000 Speaker 1: and being able to synthesize these molecules and to find 21 00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:24,840 Speaker 1: other similar molecules that could have the same effects on 22 00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:27,880 Speaker 1: the body. A lot of important things came out of 23 00:01:27,880 --> 00:01:31,720 Speaker 1: this research. This is a two part episode. In part one, 24 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:34,440 Speaker 1: we are going to talk about her early life and 25 00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:37,800 Speaker 1: some of the really formative moments in that early life 26 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:41,440 Speaker 1: that led her to this career in X ray crystallography, 27 00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:44,800 Speaker 1: and then in part two we will talk about her 28 00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:49,040 Speaker 1: research and all those discoveries that she made. Also, usually 29 00:01:49,080 --> 00:01:52,600 Speaker 1: in my episodes, once someone is out of their childhood, 30 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:56,040 Speaker 1: I usually call them mostly by their last name, unless 31 00:01:56,080 --> 00:01:58,120 Speaker 1: that would be confusing. I think this is kind of 32 00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:01,960 Speaker 1: a holdover from Earth earlier style guides that were part 33 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:07,880 Speaker 1: of my career. Yeah, writing and editing stuff. During her life, though, 34 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:12,320 Speaker 1: Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin was really insistent that people call her Dorothy, 35 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:15,079 Speaker 1: and I saw so many people say this about her 36 00:02:15,120 --> 00:02:18,079 Speaker 1: that I started to feel a little weirdly formal calling 37 00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:22,200 Speaker 1: her Crowfoot or Hodgken. In this episode, she wanted to 38 00:02:22,280 --> 00:02:24,480 Speaker 1: be called Dorothy, and a lot of people said that, 39 00:02:25,480 --> 00:02:29,400 Speaker 1: So that's mostly what we'll do. Dorothy may Crowfoot was 40 00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:32,639 Speaker 1: the first of four daughters born to John and Grace 41 00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:36,440 Speaker 1: Mary Crowfoot. Grace Mary was known as Molly. She was 42 00:02:36,440 --> 00:02:40,320 Speaker 1: born on May twelfth, nineteen ten, in Cairo, Egypt. The 43 00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:44,000 Speaker 1: family was living there because of John's work. Britain had 44 00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:47,800 Speaker 1: established what is sometimes called a veiled Protectorate over Egypt 45 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:51,320 Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty two, making it nominally still part of 46 00:02:51,360 --> 00:02:55,959 Speaker 1: the Ottoman Empire, but under British administration, and John worked 47 00:02:55,960 --> 00:02:59,799 Speaker 1: in the Ministry of Public Instruction in both Egypt and Sudan. 48 00:03:00,639 --> 00:03:03,959 Speaker 1: When Dorothy's mother, Molly was growing up, she had wanted 49 00:03:03,960 --> 00:03:08,000 Speaker 1: to become a doctor, and while this wasn't completely impossible 50 00:03:08,160 --> 00:03:11,320 Speaker 1: in England in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, 51 00:03:11,360 --> 00:03:15,639 Speaker 1: it was really difficult, and her parents did not see 52 00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:19,840 Speaker 1: the need for women to attain an education beyond finishing school, 53 00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:25,080 Speaker 1: so Molly instead trained as a midwife. This training probably 54 00:03:25,120 --> 00:03:28,919 Speaker 1: played a role in her marriage to Dorothy's father. Mollie's 55 00:03:28,919 --> 00:03:32,480 Speaker 1: attraction to John was immediate, but he didn't seem to 56 00:03:32,480 --> 00:03:35,280 Speaker 1: be all that interested in her until about a decade 57 00:03:35,320 --> 00:03:37,760 Speaker 1: after they first met, when she wrote to tell him 58 00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:41,640 Speaker 1: she had gotten this training and was prepared for overseas service. 59 00:03:42,600 --> 00:03:45,760 Speaker 1: She was particularly interested in the idea of being able 60 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:49,160 Speaker 1: to provide pregnancy care where women didn't have access to 61 00:03:49,240 --> 00:03:54,040 Speaker 1: medical practitioners, or where it was considered inappropriate for women 62 00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:56,840 Speaker 1: to be examined by a man, or for a man 63 00:03:56,880 --> 00:04:00,440 Speaker 1: to attend their birth Yeah, to kind of re between 64 00:04:00,440 --> 00:04:02,880 Speaker 1: the lines, that sort of seems like he might have thought, 65 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:05,920 Speaker 1: I don't know if this person can keep up with 66 00:04:06,040 --> 00:04:09,480 Speaker 1: my career that involves living and working in Northern Africa 67 00:04:09,480 --> 00:04:12,240 Speaker 1: and sometimes in places that don't have a lot of resources. 68 00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:15,080 Speaker 1: And then she was like, I'm on board with it. 69 00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:22,159 Speaker 1: Actually be me. Yeah. Although she was denied access to 70 00:04:22,279 --> 00:04:26,560 Speaker 1: a formal higher education, Mollie had a lot of self 71 00:04:26,560 --> 00:04:30,680 Speaker 1: taught and experiential knowledge and subjects like art, botany, and 72 00:04:30,839 --> 00:04:34,479 Speaker 1: ancient textiles. Over the course of her life, she came 73 00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:38,800 Speaker 1: to be seen as an international expert in archaeological textiles 74 00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:43,080 Speaker 1: in particular. She was also an advocate of educational opportunities 75 00:04:43,120 --> 00:04:46,320 Speaker 1: for girls, and she helped establish schools for girls and 76 00:04:46,400 --> 00:04:50,400 Speaker 1: places where John worked. All of this certainly played a 77 00:04:50,520 --> 00:04:54,120 Speaker 1: role in how supportive Molly was of Dorothy's interest in 78 00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:58,000 Speaker 1: becoming a scientist. The fact that Molly and John didn't 79 00:04:58,040 --> 00:05:01,279 Speaker 1: have any sons, may have played a part in how 80 00:05:01,279 --> 00:05:04,840 Speaker 1: open they were to this as well. John and Molly's 81 00:05:04,839 --> 00:05:07,880 Speaker 1: work in Northern Africa meant that Dorothy and her sisters 82 00:05:07,920 --> 00:05:11,120 Speaker 1: had an upbringing that was unusual for most British children, 83 00:05:11,640 --> 00:05:15,279 Speaker 1: but not unheard of among the children of colonial administrators 84 00:05:15,320 --> 00:05:19,559 Speaker 1: and other people working for Britain overseas. At the start 85 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:22,440 Speaker 1: of the nineteeneens, Dorothy and her sisters were with their 86 00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:25,560 Speaker 1: parents in Northern Africa for part of the year, and 87 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:28,800 Speaker 1: then in England with grandparents during the hottest months of 88 00:05:28,839 --> 00:05:32,680 Speaker 1: the summer. When World War One started in nineteen fourteen, 89 00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:36,600 Speaker 1: Mollie took the girls, Dorothy, Joan, and Elizabeth, who was 90 00:05:36,680 --> 00:05:39,920 Speaker 1: known as Betty, to England, where they lived with grandparents 91 00:05:39,960 --> 00:05:43,800 Speaker 1: for the duration of the year. Molly returned to Africa 92 00:05:43,839 --> 00:05:46,440 Speaker 1: and only saw them once before the war was over. 93 00:05:47,200 --> 00:05:50,400 Speaker 1: She gave birth to their youngest sister, Diana, during the war. 94 00:05:51,240 --> 00:05:54,640 Speaker 1: These separations from their parents have to have been difficult 95 00:05:54,680 --> 00:05:59,120 Speaker 1: for the girls, but Dorothy also attributed her independence and 96 00:05:59,200 --> 00:06:02,320 Speaker 1: her adult life to having been apart from her parents 97 00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:05,960 Speaker 1: so often and for so long as a child, while 98 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:10,920 Speaker 1: being raised mostly by nurses and grandparents, she started attending school, 99 00:06:11,040 --> 00:06:15,440 Speaker 1: and she became extremely determined to learn. At one point, 100 00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:18,680 Speaker 1: a nurse wrote a letter to Molly about how Dorothy 101 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:23,640 Speaker 1: kept exhausting herself studying, saying, quote, even in her sleep, 102 00:06:23,720 --> 00:06:26,919 Speaker 1: she was at school and this was not something that 103 00:06:26,960 --> 00:06:29,480 Speaker 1: Dorothy grew out of. While she was working on her 104 00:06:29,520 --> 00:06:33,480 Speaker 1: fourth year project at Oxford University, a friend described her 105 00:06:33,560 --> 00:06:38,039 Speaker 1: as working for almost forty hours straight, really looking like 106 00:06:38,080 --> 00:06:40,760 Speaker 1: a ghost, and losing weight because she was spending so 107 00:06:40,920 --> 00:06:43,880 Speaker 1: much time in the lab. After the end of World 108 00:06:43,960 --> 00:06:47,000 Speaker 1: War One, when Dorothy was about eight, she and her 109 00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:50,080 Speaker 1: sisters were reunited with their mother, who seems to have 110 00:06:50,120 --> 00:06:52,560 Speaker 1: wanted to make up for the lost time with them. 111 00:06:53,440 --> 00:06:56,080 Speaker 1: They found a home near Beckle's, close to where John 112 00:06:56,120 --> 00:06:59,080 Speaker 1: had grown up. Mollie taught them at home for about 113 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:01,839 Speaker 1: a year with a curiculum that she had developed herself. 114 00:07:02,279 --> 00:07:06,760 Speaker 1: Now was focused on subjects like poetry, history, natural history, 115 00:07:06,839 --> 00:07:11,280 Speaker 1: and geography. After that year, Dorothy and her sisters briefly 116 00:07:11,320 --> 00:07:15,280 Speaker 1: attended a school that was established by the Parents' National 117 00:07:15,440 --> 00:07:19,800 Speaker 1: Educational Union, which was an organization to help parents establish 118 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:23,840 Speaker 1: small private schools in people's homes or in rented rooms. 119 00:07:23,880 --> 00:07:27,120 Speaker 1: As an alternative to local schools that could also help 120 00:07:27,160 --> 00:07:31,480 Speaker 1: with homeschooling. The Union also trained teachers to work in 121 00:07:31,520 --> 00:07:35,560 Speaker 1: these schools. This very small school was where Dorothy had 122 00:07:35,560 --> 00:07:39,440 Speaker 1: her first experience with chemistry and a lesson that involved 123 00:07:39,480 --> 00:07:43,760 Speaker 1: growing crystals from a solution. Dorothy was ten, and she 124 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:46,960 Speaker 1: later said of this quote, I was captured for life 125 00:07:47,040 --> 00:07:52,040 Speaker 1: by chemistry and by crystals. Before long, Dorothy was putting 126 00:07:52,040 --> 00:07:55,480 Speaker 1: together her own chemistry lab in her attic room at home, 127 00:07:56,120 --> 00:08:00,720 Speaker 1: buying materials from the local chemist with her pocket money. Apparently, 128 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:03,920 Speaker 1: he didn't put a lot of thought into which chemicals 129 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:06,880 Speaker 1: were safe to sell to a child, and her parents 130 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:10,680 Speaker 1: trusted her not to do anything really dangerous. Although her 131 00:08:10,720 --> 00:08:14,840 Speaker 1: experiments did involve using a burner in the house. That 132 00:08:15,080 --> 00:08:18,960 Speaker 1: was the limiting factor in the chemistry set I had 133 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:22,760 Speaker 1: growing up. I had to have parental attention to use 134 00:08:22,800 --> 00:08:28,880 Speaker 1: the burner, which mostly meant not doing Berner experiments. In 135 00:08:28,880 --> 00:08:32,800 Speaker 1: addition to her growing fascination with science, Dorothy loved to 136 00:08:32,920 --> 00:08:36,240 Speaker 1: draw and paint. As she got older, she continued to 137 00:08:36,240 --> 00:08:38,560 Speaker 1: do this as a hobby and it also became an 138 00:08:38,600 --> 00:08:43,280 Speaker 1: important part of her work in crystallography. Biographer Georgina Ferry 139 00:08:43,400 --> 00:08:47,080 Speaker 1: described Dorothy as approaching the work of a scientist with 140 00:08:47,200 --> 00:08:50,960 Speaker 1: the soul of an artist. When she was eleven, Dorothy 141 00:08:51,040 --> 00:08:54,880 Speaker 1: started attending Sir John Lehman's School in Beccles that was 142 00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:59,440 Speaker 1: a co educational school. Although it had separate entrances, dining halls, 143 00:08:59,480 --> 00:09:03,439 Speaker 1: and plague for boys and girls, there were also classes 144 00:09:03,440 --> 00:09:07,400 Speaker 1: that were considered only appropriate for one gender, one of 145 00:09:07,440 --> 00:09:11,240 Speaker 1: those being chemistry, which was only for boys. That doesn't 146 00:09:11,280 --> 00:09:15,240 Speaker 1: seem totally surprising given ideas about education and gender in 147 00:09:15,320 --> 00:09:18,319 Speaker 1: nineteen twenty when this was happening, but it did seem 148 00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:23,760 Speaker 1: odd considering that the chemistry teacher, Chris Deeley, was a woman. Eventually, 149 00:09:23,880 --> 00:09:26,920 Speaker 1: Dorothy and her friend Nora were allowed to take chemistry 150 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:29,679 Speaker 1: under the argument that they both planned to go to 151 00:09:29,800 --> 00:09:34,320 Speaker 1: university and that they would need it. Dealey encouraged Dorothy 152 00:09:34,440 --> 00:09:38,000 Speaker 1: and her chemistry studies, and Dorothy was also getting encouragement 153 00:09:38,040 --> 00:09:41,440 Speaker 1: from outside of school. When she was twelve, she and 154 00:09:41,480 --> 00:09:44,400 Speaker 1: her sister Joan went to visit their father in Sudan. 155 00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:49,040 Speaker 1: Dorothy met her father's colleague, doctor Af Joseph, who worked 156 00:09:49,080 --> 00:09:54,080 Speaker 1: at the Welcome Laboratory in Khartoum. Joseph taught her about chemistry, 157 00:09:54,320 --> 00:09:57,360 Speaker 1: helped her do experiments, and gave her a surveyor's kit 158 00:09:57,480 --> 00:10:01,240 Speaker 1: that she could use to identify minerals. During this trip, 159 00:10:01,760 --> 00:10:04,920 Speaker 1: Dorothy also started to become more aware of the effect 160 00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:09,120 Speaker 1: of British colonial rule on local people. While the same 161 00:10:09,160 --> 00:10:11,840 Speaker 1: things were true in Egypt when she was born, she 162 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:14,320 Speaker 1: was only about four when she was taken to England 163 00:10:14,559 --> 00:10:17,000 Speaker 1: in the wake of World War One, so she didn't 164 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:20,440 Speaker 1: really remember or know what was going on there, but 165 00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:24,360 Speaker 1: she started to hear about ongoing problems with poverty and disease, 166 00:10:24,800 --> 00:10:30,120 Speaker 1: and uprisings against British authorities, and the suppression of those uprisings. 167 00:10:30,520 --> 00:10:33,280 Speaker 1: These were often things she was hearing about rather than 168 00:10:33,280 --> 00:10:37,320 Speaker 1: directly seeing, although sometimes she did see the aftermath of 169 00:10:37,400 --> 00:10:41,760 Speaker 1: violent incidents while she was traveling. Molly wanted Dorothy to 170 00:10:41,960 --> 00:10:44,839 Speaker 1: understand the context of the world she was living in, 171 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:49,880 Speaker 1: including these kinds of issues. Dorothy's father was a colonial administrator, 172 00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:52,480 Speaker 1: but in a lot of ways, he and Molly were 173 00:10:52,520 --> 00:10:56,200 Speaker 1: idealists and progressive thinkers, at least in the context of 174 00:10:56,240 --> 00:11:00,360 Speaker 1: their time. For example, John helped establish schools for girls 175 00:11:00,440 --> 00:11:05,200 Speaker 1: and places where that whole idea was deeply controversial. Molly 176 00:11:05,400 --> 00:11:09,560 Speaker 1: established a midwiffery school in Khartom, hoping to reduce the 177 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:14,360 Speaker 1: practice of genital mutilation also called female circumcision, by offering 178 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:18,800 Speaker 1: training to traditional birth attendance. Mollie also joined the League 179 00:11:18,840 --> 00:11:23,000 Speaker 1: of Nations Union, a peace organization established to support the 180 00:11:23,080 --> 00:11:27,800 Speaker 1: League of Nations, and she enlisted the children in fundraising efforts, 181 00:11:27,840 --> 00:11:31,720 Speaker 1: including putting on a pageant to raise money. Molly also 182 00:11:31,880 --> 00:11:34,760 Speaker 1: established a Brownie troop and then a Girl Guide troop, 183 00:11:34,840 --> 00:11:39,079 Speaker 1: which her daughters participated in. When Dorothy was sixteen, her 184 00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:41,000 Speaker 1: mother gave her a gift that had the same kind 185 00:11:41,040 --> 00:11:45,120 Speaker 1: of impact on her as a first chemistry lesson growing crystals, 186 00:11:45,360 --> 00:11:47,640 Speaker 1: and we will get to that after a sponsor break. 187 00:11:57,200 --> 00:12:00,439 Speaker 1: When Dorothy Crowfoot was a teenager, her mother gave her 188 00:12:00,480 --> 00:12:04,360 Speaker 1: Sir William Henry Bragg's book Concerning the Nature of Things 189 00:12:04,880 --> 00:12:08,320 Speaker 1: that was published in nineteen twenty five. This book was 190 00:12:08,320 --> 00:12:11,840 Speaker 1: a collection of Bragg's nineteen twenty three Christmas lectures at 191 00:12:11,840 --> 00:12:15,720 Speaker 1: the Royal Institution. The Christmas lectures were meant to be 192 00:12:15,920 --> 00:12:20,680 Speaker 1: accessible to a general audience, including young people, covering science 193 00:12:20,720 --> 00:12:25,480 Speaker 1: in an engaging and understandable way. Bragg's first lectures that 194 00:12:25,640 --> 00:12:28,880 Speaker 1: year were on the nature of atoms, gases, and liquids, 195 00:12:28,960 --> 00:12:32,600 Speaker 1: and the last three were on crystals. One of the 196 00:12:32,640 --> 00:12:35,600 Speaker 1: things Bragg talked about in these lectures was the use 197 00:12:35,679 --> 00:12:38,840 Speaker 1: of X rays to study molecules, which is a very 198 00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:42,880 Speaker 1: new idea. In nineteen fourteen, Max von Laua had been 199 00:12:42,880 --> 00:12:46,520 Speaker 1: awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the diffraction 200 00:12:46,640 --> 00:12:50,760 Speaker 1: of X rays through crystals. Basically, Von Laua realized that 201 00:12:50,800 --> 00:12:53,400 Speaker 1: if you passed an X ray through a crystal, it 202 00:12:53,440 --> 00:12:57,360 Speaker 1: created a diffraction pattern on a photographic plate, sort of 203 00:12:57,400 --> 00:13:00,440 Speaker 1: like the way light passing through a screen creates pattern 204 00:13:00,480 --> 00:13:04,840 Speaker 1: of shadows. William Henry Bragg and his son, William Lawrence 205 00:13:04,880 --> 00:13:09,560 Speaker 1: Bragg built on this discovery, finding mathematical relationships between the 206 00:13:09,720 --> 00:13:13,840 Speaker 1: X rays, the crystals, and the diffraction patterns, and building 207 00:13:13,840 --> 00:13:18,280 Speaker 1: an X ray spectrometer to study these patterns. The Bragg's 208 00:13:18,360 --> 00:13:22,280 Speaker 1: discoveries were possible because of the nature of crystals. The 209 00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:26,040 Speaker 1: atoms of a crystal are arranged in a regular repeating pattern, 210 00:13:26,600 --> 00:13:29,440 Speaker 1: So when an X ray passes through a crystal, the 211 00:13:29,600 --> 00:13:33,200 Speaker 1: diffraction pattern that it creates correlates with the pattern of 212 00:13:33,240 --> 00:13:37,439 Speaker 1: those atoms, creates dark areas that X ray crystallographers can 213 00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:40,440 Speaker 1: use to figure out the location of each atom and 214 00:13:40,480 --> 00:13:44,760 Speaker 1: then determine the physical structure of the molecule. The Brag's 215 00:13:44,840 --> 00:13:48,240 Speaker 1: early work was on the structure of several salts and 216 00:13:48,360 --> 00:13:52,560 Speaker 1: relatively small molecules, and they were jointly awarded the Nobel 217 00:13:52,600 --> 00:13:56,400 Speaker 1: Prize in Physics for this work in nineteen fifteen. In 218 00:13:56,440 --> 00:14:01,000 Speaker 1: her own Nobel lecture, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin cited one particular 219 00:14:01,040 --> 00:14:04,880 Speaker 1: passage from William Henry Bragg's concerning the nature of things. 220 00:14:05,440 --> 00:14:08,959 Speaker 1: That passage was quote, broadly speaking, the discovery of X 221 00:14:09,080 --> 00:14:12,840 Speaker 1: rays has increased the keenness of our vision over ten 222 00:14:12,960 --> 00:14:17,000 Speaker 1: thousand times, and we can now see the individual atoms 223 00:14:17,080 --> 00:14:22,800 Speaker 1: and molecules. But beyond this one quote brags writing about crystals, 224 00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:26,360 Speaker 1: and these lectures really struck her and I personally find 225 00:14:26,360 --> 00:14:30,080 Speaker 1: it really beautiful. For example, he wrote, quote order and 226 00:14:30,200 --> 00:14:33,560 Speaker 1: regularity are the consequence of the complete fulfillment of the 227 00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:37,200 Speaker 1: attractions which the atoms or molecules exert on one another. 228 00:14:37,760 --> 00:14:40,920 Speaker 1: When the structure has grown to a size which renders 229 00:14:40,960 --> 00:14:43,880 Speaker 1: it visible in the microscope or even to the naked eye, 230 00:14:44,280 --> 00:14:47,720 Speaker 1: the regularity is manifest in the form of the solid 231 00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:51,080 Speaker 1: body it is what we call a crystal. It is 232 00:14:51,200 --> 00:14:55,160 Speaker 1: bounded by a number of plane faces, often highly polished 233 00:14:55,160 --> 00:14:58,640 Speaker 1: in appearance, so that the crystal has a certain charm, 234 00:14:58,840 --> 00:15:04,240 Speaker 1: due partly to ge and sparkle, partly to perfect regularity 235 00:15:04,240 --> 00:15:08,440 Speaker 1: of outline. We feel that some mystery and beauty must 236 00:15:08,600 --> 00:15:12,080 Speaker 1: underlie the characteristics that please us, And indeed that is 237 00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:15,920 Speaker 1: the case. Nature is telling us how she arranges the 238 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:20,320 Speaker 1: molecules when given full opportunity. Later on, he went on 239 00:15:20,400 --> 00:15:24,240 Speaker 1: to say, quote through the crystal. Therefore, we look down 240 00:15:24,400 --> 00:15:28,400 Speaker 1: into the first structures of nature, though our eyes cannot 241 00:15:28,440 --> 00:15:31,240 Speaker 1: read what is there without the use, so to speak, 242 00:15:31,440 --> 00:15:35,920 Speaker 1: of strong spectacles, which are the X ray methods. In 243 00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:39,160 Speaker 1: these lectures, Bragg wrote at length about X rays making 244 00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:42,120 Speaker 1: it possible for people to see things that would otherwise 245 00:15:42,160 --> 00:15:47,040 Speaker 1: be unobservable, including atoms and molecules. He also wrote about 246 00:15:47,080 --> 00:15:50,080 Speaker 1: the physical structure of crystals, making it possible for people 247 00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:53,160 Speaker 1: to observe things that they would not otherwise be able 248 00:15:53,200 --> 00:15:57,760 Speaker 1: to see. Reading this in her mid teens, Dorothy was 249 00:15:57,960 --> 00:16:03,800 Speaker 1: absolutely fascinated. Another formative event in Dorothy's life took place 250 00:16:04,040 --> 00:16:06,680 Speaker 1: more around the same time that she was first reading 251 00:16:06,760 --> 00:16:10,920 Speaker 1: Bragg's work on X ray crystallography. In September of nineteen 252 00:16:10,960 --> 00:16:13,920 Speaker 1: twenty five, when Dorothy was fifteen, her mother took her 253 00:16:13,960 --> 00:16:17,640 Speaker 1: to the sixth Assembly of the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. 254 00:16:18,280 --> 00:16:20,840 Speaker 1: The League of Nations was established in the wake of 255 00:16:20,880 --> 00:16:24,720 Speaker 1: the First World War to promote international cooperation and to 256 00:16:24,800 --> 00:16:28,600 Speaker 1: work toward peace through disarmament and the non violent resolution 257 00:16:28,800 --> 00:16:34,000 Speaker 1: of international disputes. The League of Nations also promoted international 258 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:38,360 Speaker 1: cooperation in addressing issues like human trafficking, drug trafficking, the 259 00:16:38,520 --> 00:16:43,360 Speaker 1: arms trade, and maintaining fair and humane working conditions, not 260 00:16:43,600 --> 00:16:46,840 Speaker 1: just in the member countries but in other countries where 261 00:16:46,880 --> 00:16:51,360 Speaker 1: they had commercial or industrial relations. The Protocol for the 262 00:16:51,360 --> 00:16:55,760 Speaker 1: Pacific Settlement of International Disputes, also called the Geneva Protocol 263 00:16:55,840 --> 00:16:58,560 Speaker 1: of nineteen twenty four, had been passed the League of 264 00:16:58,640 --> 00:17:03,400 Speaker 1: Nations General Assembly the previous year. It called for compulsory 265 00:17:03,640 --> 00:17:08,880 Speaker 1: arbitration among member nations to settle disputes and outline procedures 266 00:17:08,920 --> 00:17:13,040 Speaker 1: for how that arbitration would be handled. This protocol had 267 00:17:13,080 --> 00:17:17,639 Speaker 1: received preliminary approval from the member states, but Britain ultimately 268 00:17:17,960 --> 00:17:21,520 Speaker 1: had not ratified it. One of the speeches Dorothy and 269 00:17:21,560 --> 00:17:24,960 Speaker 1: Molly listened to was by French delegate Joseph Paul Boncoeur, 270 00:17:25,320 --> 00:17:27,679 Speaker 1: who was calling for the League to save what it 271 00:17:27,720 --> 00:17:31,400 Speaker 1: could of the protocol in spite of its failing ratification. 272 00:17:32,400 --> 00:17:35,160 Speaker 1: While this protocol did not come into effect, the Assembly 273 00:17:35,280 --> 00:17:38,760 Speaker 1: did call for a disarmament conference that took place in 274 00:17:38,800 --> 00:17:43,040 Speaker 1: September of nineteen twenty six. Dennis is a whole protocol 275 00:17:43,040 --> 00:17:46,680 Speaker 1: that was meant to try to prevent war through peaceful 276 00:17:46,760 --> 00:17:51,439 Speaker 1: negotiation of international disputes. Dorothy described the atmosphere of the 277 00:17:51,480 --> 00:17:53,960 Speaker 1: General Assembly in the midst of all this as a 278 00:17:53,960 --> 00:17:58,399 Speaker 1: feeling of quote hope struggling against a sense of doom. 279 00:17:58,800 --> 00:18:02,400 Speaker 1: Even though the nineteen twenty five or Geneva Protocol went unratified, 280 00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:07,000 Speaker 1: Dorothy had witnessed the process of nations coming together to 281 00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:10,840 Speaker 1: try to resolve their differences through dialogue rather than violence. 282 00:18:11,720 --> 00:18:15,680 Speaker 1: Molly's ongoing anti war activism was shaped in part by 283 00:18:15,680 --> 00:18:18,640 Speaker 1: the loss of all four of her brothers during World 284 00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:22,720 Speaker 1: War One, and Dorothy's really started to grow after attending 285 00:18:22,720 --> 00:18:26,840 Speaker 1: the Assembly with her This idea that problems should be 286 00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:29,879 Speaker 1: solved through dialogue was something that she would carry with 287 00:18:29,920 --> 00:18:33,440 Speaker 1: her for the rest of her life. In nineteen twenty seven, 288 00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:37,000 Speaker 1: Dorothy took the exams that were required to attain her 289 00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:42,359 Speaker 1: school certificate, earning distinction in six subjects. She also earned 290 00:18:42,400 --> 00:18:45,320 Speaker 1: the highest overall marks of any girl who took the 291 00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:48,800 Speaker 1: exams through her local board that year, and those high 292 00:18:48,800 --> 00:18:53,120 Speaker 1: marks earned her a cash prize. These high scores were 293 00:18:53,119 --> 00:18:57,480 Speaker 1: not altogether surprising, considering how bright and dedicated she had 294 00:18:57,480 --> 00:19:01,440 Speaker 1: already demonstrated herself to be as a student. She had 295 00:19:01,480 --> 00:19:04,640 Speaker 1: earned really high marks at other times in her education. 296 00:19:05,200 --> 00:19:08,200 Speaker 1: Sometimes she had been placed in classrooms with students who 297 00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:11,520 Speaker 1: were a year or more older than she was. But 298 00:19:11,600 --> 00:19:15,280 Speaker 1: her parents also thought formal schooling was only one of 299 00:19:15,320 --> 00:19:19,080 Speaker 1: an array of educational experiences that their children should have, 300 00:19:19,320 --> 00:19:22,760 Speaker 1: So Dorothy had some big gaps at her time at 301 00:19:22,800 --> 00:19:27,560 Speaker 1: the Lehman's School, including an entire spring term spent with 302 00:19:27,640 --> 00:19:31,040 Speaker 1: her grandmother in Italy. So she got these really high 303 00:19:31,080 --> 00:19:33,760 Speaker 1: scores in spite of just like not having been present 304 00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:37,080 Speaker 1: for a lot of the material. Ironically, one of the 305 00:19:37,119 --> 00:19:40,879 Speaker 1: subjects that she did not earn distinction in was chemistry, 306 00:19:41,160 --> 00:19:44,280 Speaker 1: and earlier on in her education she had been ranked 307 00:19:44,320 --> 00:19:48,080 Speaker 1: in the bottom half of the chemistry class. Dorothy's goal 308 00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:50,919 Speaker 1: at this point was to go to Oxford, and it 309 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:53,520 Speaker 1: seems to have been her father's goal for her as well. 310 00:19:54,320 --> 00:19:56,879 Speaker 1: She wrote of him wanting her to be educated in 311 00:19:56,960 --> 00:19:59,399 Speaker 1: the same way that a son would have been. But 312 00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:01,960 Speaker 1: it really SEMs like nobody had really looked into the 313 00:20:02,040 --> 00:20:07,480 Speaker 1: requirements for attending Oxford, not Dorothy, not her family, and 314 00:20:07,560 --> 00:20:10,919 Speaker 1: not any of her teachers at the Lehman School. She 315 00:20:11,080 --> 00:20:14,160 Speaker 1: didn't know she would need to take an entrance examination 316 00:20:14,359 --> 00:20:17,480 Speaker 1: in Latin, a language that she had no familiarity with 317 00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:20,800 Speaker 1: at all. She didn't know that her math and science 318 00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:24,920 Speaker 1: instruction were insufficient. She needed to learn a whole other 319 00:20:25,040 --> 00:20:29,760 Speaker 1: science besides chemistry, and she needed more advanced math than 320 00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:33,240 Speaker 1: she had gotten. So Dorothy and her family started planning 321 00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:36,200 Speaker 1: for her to take the Oxford entrance exams in March 322 00:20:36,280 --> 00:20:39,320 Speaker 1: of nineteen twenty eight. That was when she was going 323 00:20:39,359 --> 00:20:41,439 Speaker 1: to take them, not when they started planning, and so 324 00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:44,080 Speaker 1: that gave her about a year to try to get ready. 325 00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:47,760 Speaker 1: During that time, she learned botany from her mother and 326 00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:50,920 Speaker 1: Latin from George Watson, who was head master of the 327 00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:55,840 Speaker 1: Lehman School. The math part was a particular challenge. Dorothy 328 00:20:55,920 --> 00:20:58,800 Speaker 1: had multiple people who could help her, including a former 329 00:20:58,880 --> 00:21:02,160 Speaker 1: student at the Lehman's School who had gone to London University. 330 00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:06,399 Speaker 1: But she really struggled if she could not understand why 331 00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:10,119 Speaker 1: a particular answer was the right one. Even if she 332 00:21:10,200 --> 00:21:13,480 Speaker 1: knew that the answer was right, if she couldn't explain 333 00:21:13,720 --> 00:21:16,359 Speaker 1: why it was right, she would get really hung up 334 00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:20,360 Speaker 1: on that part of it. Her sister Elizabeth described finding 335 00:21:20,480 --> 00:21:24,159 Speaker 1: Dorothy crying over her math homework because she knew that 336 00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:27,679 Speaker 1: it was right, but she could not explain why. We 337 00:21:27,800 --> 00:21:29,840 Speaker 1: will get to what happened when she went for her 338 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:43,000 Speaker 1: entrance exams after we paused for a sponsor break. Dorothy 339 00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:46,280 Speaker 1: Crowfoot sat for her Oxford entrance exams in March of 340 00:21:46,359 --> 00:21:49,560 Speaker 1: nineteen twenty eight, and she was interviewed at Somerville College, 341 00:21:49,640 --> 00:21:53,040 Speaker 1: named for scientist and science writer Mary Somerville, who we 342 00:21:53,119 --> 00:21:56,680 Speaker 1: covered on the show in twenty twenty three. Somerville College 343 00:21:56,720 --> 00:21:59,919 Speaker 1: was one of the first women's colleges established at Oxford, 344 00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:03,640 Speaker 1: and there were several women's colleges by the time Dorothy 345 00:22:03,920 --> 00:22:08,800 Speaker 1: applied there, but isabel Fry had encouraged Dorothy to apply 346 00:22:08,880 --> 00:22:13,000 Speaker 1: at Somerville. In particular, Isabelle ran a school that two 347 00:22:13,119 --> 00:22:17,240 Speaker 1: of Dorothy's sisters were attending, and Isabelle's sister Marjorie was 348 00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:22,480 Speaker 1: principal at Somerville. Beyond that personal connection, Isabelle thought Dorothy 349 00:22:22,560 --> 00:22:25,119 Speaker 1: had a good chance of being accepted at Somerville because 350 00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:29,760 Speaker 1: very few women were applying to study science. Somerville also 351 00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:35,600 Speaker 1: had the strongest academic reputation of the Oxford women's colleges. Ultimately, 352 00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:39,280 Speaker 1: all of Dorothy's preparation over that year and maybe also 353 00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:42,000 Speaker 1: that connection to the principle paid off, and she was 354 00:22:42,040 --> 00:22:45,240 Speaker 1: admitted to Somerville College, Oxford, to start in the fall 355 00:22:45,359 --> 00:22:49,240 Speaker 1: of nineteen twenty eight. Before she went, she participated in 356 00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:52,560 Speaker 1: an archaeological dig in jiash and what is now Jordan, 357 00:22:53,040 --> 00:22:55,760 Speaker 1: and that was co sponsored by Yale University. In the 358 00:22:55,800 --> 00:23:00,480 Speaker 1: British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, Dorothy's father, Jo had 359 00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:04,080 Speaker 1: been appointed director of the school. He had retired from 360 00:23:04,080 --> 00:23:07,359 Speaker 1: his British Civil Service job in Khartoum, Sudan a couple 361 00:23:07,400 --> 00:23:11,040 Speaker 1: of years previously, at the earliest age that he could 362 00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:15,000 Speaker 1: retire and still receive his full pension, and it seemed 363 00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:18,520 Speaker 1: like the family might be reunited in England after years 364 00:23:18,520 --> 00:23:21,880 Speaker 1: of long separations because of his work in Northern Africa. 365 00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:27,400 Speaker 1: But then he accepted this appointment. It might seem strange 366 00:23:27,520 --> 00:23:30,679 Speaker 1: for John to have accepted this job when he was 367 00:23:30,840 --> 00:23:34,160 Speaker 1: really on the verge of retiring and being with his family, 368 00:23:34,840 --> 00:23:38,280 Speaker 1: but he had always wanted to be an archaeologist. Before 369 00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:41,119 Speaker 1: he started working at the Ministry of Education in Cairo, 370 00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:44,320 Speaker 1: he had studied archaeology and he had gone on some digs, 371 00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:50,199 Speaker 1: including on behalf of the British Museum. Not ignoring the 372 00:23:50,200 --> 00:23:52,159 Speaker 1: fact that there's a lot of problematic stuff at the 373 00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:54,800 Speaker 1: British Museum, this is more about the trust that was 374 00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:58,000 Speaker 1: placed in him going on these sticks. One of his 375 00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:02,440 Speaker 1: earlier jobs in Northern Africa had included being acting Conservator 376 00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:06,080 Speaker 1: of Antiquities in Sudan, but he just did not have 377 00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:09,199 Speaker 1: the kind of wealth that was required to fund his 378 00:24:09,320 --> 00:24:12,320 Speaker 1: own archaeological digs, and he also didn't have the kind 379 00:24:12,320 --> 00:24:16,640 Speaker 1: of academic appointment that could allow him to pursue archaeology 380 00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:21,399 Speaker 1: more full time. So this directorship was basically his dream 381 00:24:21,520 --> 00:24:24,080 Speaker 1: job that came along later in his life, and it 382 00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:26,080 Speaker 1: was a big enough deal for him to just put 383 00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:29,960 Speaker 1: off actually retiring. One of the things that Dorothy did 384 00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:33,280 Speaker 1: at this dig was work on the excavation and documentation 385 00:24:33,880 --> 00:24:37,520 Speaker 1: of mosaic floors dating back to the Eastern Roman Empire 386 00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:41,280 Speaker 1: in the fifth and sixth centuries, and she was really 387 00:24:41,359 --> 00:24:45,800 Speaker 1: fascinated by their geometry and their repeating patterns, much like 388 00:24:45,960 --> 00:24:49,399 Speaker 1: the regular patterns of the atoms in crystals, and she 389 00:24:49,440 --> 00:24:52,600 Speaker 1: started drafting a reproduction of two of these mosaics at 390 00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:57,120 Speaker 1: one tenth scale. The tiles measured about a centimeter square, 391 00:24:57,200 --> 00:24:59,840 Speaker 1: and she represented each of them with a dot of 392 00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:03,960 Speaker 1: She worked on these reproductions for about two years after 393 00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:07,640 Speaker 1: leaving the dig site, and eventually sent them to Yale. 394 00:25:07,760 --> 00:25:09,800 Speaker 1: She also spent some of her time at this dig 395 00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:13,840 Speaker 1: studying physics, using a textbook that her Oxford tutor sent 396 00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:16,560 Speaker 1: to her, since the science she really needed to go 397 00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:20,120 Speaker 1: along with the study of chemistry was physics, not botany. 398 00:25:20,920 --> 00:25:24,840 Speaker 1: Dorothy Crowfoot was eighteen when she started at Oxford. Her 399 00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:28,639 Speaker 1: classmates described her as very quiet, which had been true 400 00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:32,399 Speaker 1: in her earlier education as well, but they also said 401 00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:35,199 Speaker 1: that she had really interesting things to say if you 402 00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:38,640 Speaker 1: could just get her to start talking. She also had 403 00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:41,280 Speaker 1: some limits and how much time she had available to 404 00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:45,119 Speaker 1: connect with her classmates. An education at Oxford involved a 405 00:25:45,160 --> 00:25:48,200 Speaker 1: lot of independence study, and that was something that Dorothy 406 00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:51,320 Speaker 1: was really well prepared for given how much learning she 407 00:25:51,359 --> 00:25:54,400 Speaker 1: had already done on her own and how often she'd 408 00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:57,879 Speaker 1: been responsible for her younger sisters when her parents were away. 409 00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:02,959 Speaker 1: She really threw herself into this independent study, especially because 410 00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:06,919 Speaker 1: Oxford was not actually teaching X ray crystallography yet, so 411 00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:09,239 Speaker 1: she was having to study everything involved with that on 412 00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:13,480 Speaker 1: her own. In addition to that, Somerville students were allowed 413 00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:17,040 Speaker 1: to attend lectures at the other Oxford colleges, and since 414 00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:21,000 Speaker 1: there weren't many scientists at Somerville, Dorothy was spending a 415 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:23,879 Speaker 1: lot of time somewhere else. She came back to her 416 00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:26,600 Speaker 1: college a lot of the time only for meals and sleep. 417 00:26:27,520 --> 00:26:30,040 Speaker 1: At the same time, she participated in a lot of 418 00:26:30,080 --> 00:26:34,359 Speaker 1: activities at Oxford. She worked on archaeological digs at Roman 419 00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:37,240 Speaker 1: sites in the area. She was in the Labor Club, 420 00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:42,600 Speaker 1: the Archaeological Society, and the Junior Scientific Club. Marjorie Frye 421 00:26:42,640 --> 00:26:45,800 Speaker 1: also ran the Somerville Crime Club, which was focused on 422 00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:49,960 Speaker 1: penal reform and the abolition of capital punishment, and Dorothy 423 00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:53,080 Speaker 1: was a member of that as well. There were a 424 00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:56,920 Speaker 1: lot of rules around women and their behavior at Oxford, 425 00:26:57,040 --> 00:27:01,080 Speaker 1: including how and whether women were allowed to interact with men, 426 00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:04,879 Speaker 1: and there were also rules that affected the very existence 427 00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:09,320 Speaker 1: of the women's colleges. Their enrollment was capped. They were 428 00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:13,880 Speaker 1: prohibited from expanding beyond one woman for every four men 429 00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:19,000 Speaker 1: studying across all of Oxford. The women's colleges were a 430 00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:22,359 Speaker 1: lot newer than the other colleges at Oxford. Those other 431 00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:26,280 Speaker 1: men's colleges had large endowments a lot of the time 432 00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:30,919 Speaker 1: thanks to generations of alumni making donations to them. The 433 00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:34,800 Speaker 1: women's colleges didn't have that history or that money, and 434 00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:37,520 Speaker 1: then because of that one in four limit, they were 435 00:27:37,560 --> 00:27:40,560 Speaker 1: also barred from just bringing in a lot more paying 436 00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:43,520 Speaker 1: women's students to try to bring in more income to 437 00:27:43,560 --> 00:27:47,600 Speaker 1: the colleges. The women's colleges tend to just have less 438 00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:50,400 Speaker 1: in the way of money and supplies and equipment than 439 00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:54,600 Speaker 1: the men's colleges did. In nineteen thirty one, Dorothy was 440 00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:58,160 Speaker 1: preparing to start on her fourth year research project, which 441 00:27:58,200 --> 00:28:02,359 Speaker 1: was required for graduation. From home. One of the centers 442 00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:05,720 Speaker 1: of chrystallography in Europe was Germany, and a lot of 443 00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:09,159 Speaker 1: papers on physics and chemistry were being published in German, 444 00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:12,800 Speaker 1: so she took a trip to Germany to both work 445 00:28:12,840 --> 00:28:16,040 Speaker 1: on her German and to get some more lab experience. 446 00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:19,520 Speaker 1: In spite of her interest in things like the peace 447 00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:23,320 Speaker 1: movement and the League of Nations, really does not seem 448 00:28:23,359 --> 00:28:25,639 Speaker 1: like she had a clear idea of what was happening 449 00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:28,720 Speaker 1: in German politics in nineteen thirty one, or if she did, 450 00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:32,520 Speaker 1: she might not have taken it very seriously. This was 451 00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:34,800 Speaker 1: really a pattern in her life. Sometimes it seemed like 452 00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:38,760 Speaker 1: she had an overly optimistic or even naive belief in 453 00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:42,720 Speaker 1: the power of international cooperation and peace through dialogue, to 454 00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:46,080 Speaker 1: the point that she did not see or fully believe 455 00:28:46,320 --> 00:28:50,400 Speaker 1: negative or even horrific things that were happening. I didn't 456 00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:52,680 Speaker 1: put it in the outline, but in I think nineteen 457 00:28:52,760 --> 00:28:54,960 Speaker 1: thirty six, she took a trip to Spain when the 458 00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:58,560 Speaker 1: Spanish Civil War was about to start. Like this happened 459 00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:01,400 Speaker 1: more than once. When she made this trip to Germany, 460 00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:04,920 Speaker 1: the Nazi Party was gaining support but had not yet 461 00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:08,040 Speaker 1: taken control, so to a lot of people, the situation 462 00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:11,960 Speaker 1: there was escalating and scary at the same time, though 463 00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:15,400 Speaker 1: her hosts in Germany were Jewish, and Dorothy thought that 464 00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:18,800 Speaker 1: they did not seem to be very worried. Although she 465 00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:22,000 Speaker 1: did get some lab time. On this trip, she did 466 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:25,400 Speaker 1: not do much to improve for German because her parents 467 00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:28,240 Speaker 1: came through Germany on their way back to England from 468 00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:30,600 Speaker 1: a trip, and they took her on a trip to 469 00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:36,080 Speaker 1: visit archaeological museums in Berlin, so not as much pressure 470 00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:39,080 Speaker 1: while traveling with her parents to speak a lot of German. 471 00:29:39,920 --> 00:29:42,640 Speaker 1: By the time Dorothy was ready to start her fourth 472 00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:46,920 Speaker 1: year project, Oxford had set up a basic crystallography lab. 473 00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:49,600 Speaker 1: Before that, she had thought she might have to go 474 00:29:49,640 --> 00:29:52,280 Speaker 1: to London, where the Brags were working, and work on 475 00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:56,520 Speaker 1: her project there, but Herbert Marcus Powell, known as Tiny 476 00:29:56,680 --> 00:29:59,600 Speaker 1: for his small stature, had just been hired as a 477 00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:04,920 Speaker 1: demons at Oxford in the mineralogy department. Demonstrator was essentially 478 00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:09,680 Speaker 1: a junior lecturer position. Powell had hand blown an X 479 00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:13,720 Speaker 1: ray tube and acquired a camera, creating a very basic 480 00:30:13,760 --> 00:30:19,320 Speaker 1: crystallography setup. Dorothy was Powell's first student. Yeah, when we 481 00:30:19,360 --> 00:30:23,120 Speaker 1: say very basic crystallography set up, there was an interview 482 00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:25,080 Speaker 1: that I saw her doing very late in her life 483 00:30:25,120 --> 00:30:29,240 Speaker 1: where she described this camera as horrible. Apparently it was 484 00:30:29,400 --> 00:30:32,720 Speaker 1: very rudimentary compared to what actually would have worked really 485 00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:35,520 Speaker 1: well for doing this kind of work. The two of 486 00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:39,800 Speaker 1: them worked on determining the structure of dimethyl thallium halides, 487 00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:44,080 Speaker 1: which were somewhat more complex than the compounds that had 488 00:30:44,120 --> 00:30:48,360 Speaker 1: already been studied through X ray crystallography. Dorothy grew the 489 00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:52,400 Speaker 1: crystals and she illustrated them, and they would bombard these 490 00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:56,280 Speaker 1: crystals with X rays. The crystals would diffract the X rays, 491 00:30:56,320 --> 00:30:58,880 Speaker 1: which would be picked up by a photographic plate, and 492 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:03,000 Speaker 1: Dorothy would also document all of this, including drawing illustrations 493 00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:06,800 Speaker 1: of it, and analyze the results. Figuring out how the 494 00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:11,040 Speaker 1: patterns on the plate corresponded to specific atoms required trial 495 00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:14,400 Speaker 1: and error and a lot of math, which Dorothy found 496 00:31:14,520 --> 00:31:18,400 Speaker 1: very difficult. She also found Powell difficult to work with. 497 00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:21,200 Speaker 1: It seems she thought he was more of a micromanager 498 00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:25,040 Speaker 1: than a visionary or a mentor, as she had so 499 00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:29,360 Speaker 1: often done before. She worked herself to exhaustion, leading her 500 00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:31,560 Speaker 1: friends to try to look after her and make sure 501 00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:34,920 Speaker 1: she ate enough rested when she was sick, and spent 502 00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:38,080 Speaker 1: at least some time out of the lab. When I 503 00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:43,640 Speaker 1: say difficult math, as somebody whose math instruction ended with 504 00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:47,920 Speaker 1: pre calculus in nineteen ninety three, not only did I 505 00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:51,560 Speaker 1: not understand this math. I could not figure out how 506 00:31:51,600 --> 00:31:54,520 Speaker 1: to explain just the basic concepts that she was using 507 00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:57,360 Speaker 1: or the tools that she was using to help her 508 00:31:57,440 --> 00:32:03,280 Speaker 1: do it. Math beyond my understanding, beyond my education. Really, 509 00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:05,600 Speaker 1: if I had ever been taught it, I might could 510 00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:09,239 Speaker 1: explain it, but not with an education, stopping with pre 511 00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:16,880 Speaker 1: calculus in nineteen ninety three. After finishing this project, in 512 00:32:16,960 --> 00:32:20,680 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty two, Dorothy Crowfoot was awarded a first class 513 00:32:20,680 --> 00:32:24,680 Speaker 1: degree in chemistry from Oxford, making her the third woman 514 00:32:24,840 --> 00:32:29,240 Speaker 1: ever to earn that distinction. She also earned a scholarship 515 00:32:29,240 --> 00:32:32,440 Speaker 1: that she could use toward doing further research, and the 516 00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:35,760 Speaker 1: research that she conducted with Herbert Powell was published in 517 00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:39,240 Speaker 1: the journal Nature that year under both of their names. 518 00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:42,120 Speaker 1: And we will get into what happened next in her 519 00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:46,000 Speaker 1: life after she left Oxford next time. This is a 520 00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:49,320 Speaker 1: little cliffhanger today kind of. This is sort of a 521 00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:51,360 Speaker 1: moment where her life is about to make a lot 522 00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:56,640 Speaker 1: of big changes. Bye bye, bub Yeah, I have some 523 00:32:56,800 --> 00:33:01,040 Speaker 1: listener mail. It is a listener mail correction. This email 524 00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:04,680 Speaker 1: is from Scott, and Scott wrote Hi your June first, 525 00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:08,080 Speaker 1: twenty twenty six episode The Literary Life of Villa Rosebroo 526 00:33:08,360 --> 00:33:12,000 Speaker 1: repeats a mistake in reference removed from Wikipedia entries for 527 00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:15,760 Speaker 1: My Antonia and Villa Roseboro on June twenty eighth, twenty 528 00:33:15,760 --> 00:33:20,200 Speaker 1: twenty six, based on new research described in Who's Antonia. 529 00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:24,840 Speaker 1: AI attempts to reconceive Jim Burden, published in the Spring 530 00:33:24,840 --> 00:33:28,479 Speaker 1: twenty twenty six edition of The Willa Cather Review. So 531 00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:32,560 Speaker 1: the email then quotes from the episode that is being 532 00:33:32,600 --> 00:33:35,600 Speaker 1: corrected here, which is the part where we talked about 533 00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:39,480 Speaker 1: Willa Cather getting rejected a bunch of times when she 534 00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:42,880 Speaker 1: tried to get My Antonia published, and then Villa Roseboro 535 00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:45,800 Speaker 1: reading it and saying that it needed to be rewritten 536 00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:50,880 Speaker 1: in the point of view of Jim Burden. The email continues, 537 00:33:51,520 --> 00:33:55,320 Speaker 1: my Antonia was never offered to let alone rejected by 538 00:33:55,440 --> 00:34:00,800 Speaker 1: any publishers. Cather's regular publisher, Hutton Mifflin. Did it sight 539 00:34:00,960 --> 00:34:04,200 Speaker 1: unseen when she first offered it to them. The remainder 540 00:34:04,280 --> 00:34:08,640 Speaker 1: of the anecdote referenced is equally mistaken. Whose Antonia uses 541 00:34:08,680 --> 00:34:11,920 Speaker 1: original source material to explain where it originated, why it 542 00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:16,480 Speaker 1: is incorrect, and to whom it really refers. Next in 543 00:34:16,520 --> 00:34:19,879 Speaker 1: this email, there is a link to the full edition 544 00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:25,440 Speaker 1: to this paper at the Willicather Review, which is behind 545 00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:29,840 Speaker 1: a membership firewall for a year, an abstract in excerpts 546 00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:33,000 Speaker 1: and the work sided of this paper at Academia dot edu, 547 00:34:33,200 --> 00:34:36,680 Speaker 1: and then a YouTube video of the presentation of this paper, 548 00:34:36,719 --> 00:34:40,120 Speaker 1: which was at the June twenty, twenty sixth seventy first 549 00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:45,120 Speaker 1: Annual Willicather Spring Conference. And then Scott continues, as you 550 00:34:45,160 --> 00:34:48,000 Speaker 1: will see you are not the first to be misled. 551 00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:52,080 Speaker 1: Attempts are ongoing to rebut the references to the Errant 552 00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:56,400 Speaker 1: Roseboro anecdote where it has appeared, including an Oxford, Cambridge 553 00:34:56,480 --> 00:34:59,880 Speaker 1: American Literature teacher's Guide. If you have any questions or 554 00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:04,319 Speaker 1: additional information, please do not hesitate to ask regards Scott So. 555 00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:08,680 Speaker 1: Scott is the author of this paper. Thank you so 556 00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:12,120 Speaker 1: much Scott for sending this. This is not information that 557 00:35:12,239 --> 00:35:17,200 Speaker 1: existed when we did the episode, because we recorded it 558 00:35:17,239 --> 00:35:22,279 Speaker 1: on something like May fifteenth, and I did want to clarify. 559 00:35:22,440 --> 00:35:25,920 Speaker 1: I don't know if the reference to it being removed 560 00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:29,000 Speaker 1: from Wikipedia entries is a suggestion that we might have 561 00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:32,880 Speaker 1: used those entries to research the show. We do not 562 00:35:33,239 --> 00:35:38,120 Speaker 1: research the show using Wikipedia. I was very curious, though 563 00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:40,880 Speaker 1: I looked back at my resources that were part of 564 00:35:40,920 --> 00:35:43,359 Speaker 1: the episode, and I did not go through all of them, 565 00:35:44,040 --> 00:35:50,799 Speaker 1: but this little anecdote was in three papers by two 566 00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:54,840 Speaker 1: different authors. At least that's where I stopped looking. And 567 00:35:54,920 --> 00:35:59,000 Speaker 1: then I looked at the Wikipedia edit history, and it 568 00:35:59,040 --> 00:36:04,399 Speaker 1: appears that Wikipedia's original source for this information is two 569 00:36:04,440 --> 00:36:07,040 Speaker 1: of the papers that were part of my research. So 570 00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:12,680 Speaker 1: like Wikipedia and I used the same resources for this. 571 00:36:14,280 --> 00:36:17,920 Speaker 1: If this paper had happened, or if this episode had 572 00:36:17,960 --> 00:36:21,279 Speaker 1: happened two months later, this might have been something I 573 00:36:21,280 --> 00:36:23,160 Speaker 1: would have found and I could have said, this is 574 00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:25,759 Speaker 1: a thing that has been repeated so many times and 575 00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:29,880 Speaker 1: we've just learned that it's wrong. But time did not 576 00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:33,160 Speaker 1: align for that to happen. No, it happens so often 577 00:36:33,320 --> 00:36:36,359 Speaker 1: the second we publish a thing, the universe goes, hey, 578 00:36:36,360 --> 00:36:38,279 Speaker 1: we're going to do something here that's going to make this, 579 00:36:38,719 --> 00:36:40,880 Speaker 1: by the way, item you wished you had done two 580 00:36:40,960 --> 00:36:44,360 Speaker 1: months later, it just happens. Yeah, I know, you didn't 581 00:36:44,440 --> 00:36:48,520 Speaker 1: expect new information about someone when one of the things 582 00:36:48,520 --> 00:36:51,480 Speaker 1: that we talked about is there being only one biography 583 00:36:51,680 --> 00:36:55,040 Speaker 1: that was six hundred or something pages long, and yeah, 584 00:36:55,400 --> 00:37:00,000 Speaker 1: doesn't exist in many collections. So anyway, thank you again, 585 00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:06,240 Speaker 1: and Scott for sending this. We do not often get 586 00:37:06,320 --> 00:37:09,160 Speaker 1: emails from folks about the research that they have done 587 00:37:09,320 --> 00:37:12,080 Speaker 1: that has related to the show, but when it does happen, 588 00:37:12,160 --> 00:37:16,960 Speaker 1: I'm always appreciative, also appreciative to have something corrected that 589 00:37:17,680 --> 00:37:21,960 Speaker 1: you know we would have avoided had it been possible, hopefully, 590 00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:25,000 Speaker 1: if you would like to send us a note or 591 00:37:25,040 --> 00:37:28,680 Speaker 1: at History Podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com, and if you 592 00:37:28,719 --> 00:37:31,520 Speaker 1: want to see the source lists for all of our episodes, 593 00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:34,799 Speaker 1: including the source list of the Villa Roseboro episode that 594 00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:39,040 Speaker 1: is at our website which is missed Inhistory dot com. 595 00:37:39,120 --> 00:37:41,759 Speaker 1: You can also subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio 596 00:37:41,800 --> 00:37:46,160 Speaker 1: app or anywhere else that you'd like to get your podcasts. 597 00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:53,120 Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 598 00:37:53,440 --> 00:37:58,040 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 599 00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:00,239 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite show. 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