Dorothy Hodgkin

“ I was captured for life by chemistry and by crystals” - Dorothy Hodgkin (The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations)

I think it is important that we honour the female scientists who played a role in paving the way for women in the science and math fields of today.  There are hundreds of amazing women who have been forgotten about, and Dorothy Hodgkin is one of them.  Hodgkin was not only a scientist, but an activist and pioneer in the field of X-ray crystallography.

Hodgkin’s parents were prominent figures in the world of archaeology and she grew up visiting them in various destinations including Sudan and Cairo. From the ages eleven to eighteen, Hodgkin was one of only two girls who were allowed to join the boys for chemistry class -- by the time she graduated from that school, she knew she wanted to study chemistry (Nobel).  

Hodgkin proceeded to excel in science and she was one of the pioneers of x-ray crystallography after deciding to study the topic for her fourth year research assignment at Somerville College (Chemistry Heritage Foundation).  After graduating from Somerville, Hodgkin moved on to study at Cambridge with a physicist named John Bernal (Encyclopedia Britannica). She remained at Cambridge and completed her doctoral studies but eventually returned to Somerville after being offered a research fellowship. Hodgkin remained at Somerville and taught for nearly forty years before she retired (Nobel).  

During the time she spent teaching, Hodgkin made major discoveries including vitamin B12 and the structures of insulin and penicillin.  Hodgkin received many honours including being the second woman to be elected to join the Royal Society, and being the third women to win the Nobel Prize in chemistry (Nobel).

In addition to being an inspirational scientist, Hodgkin was a humanitarian.  Hodgkin took a special interest in bringing together scientists from around the world.  Eventually Hodgkin became president of the Pugwash Conferences on Sciences and World Affairs, an organisation whose main goal was to promote the peaceful use of science (Chemistry Heritage Foundation).

I think that women like Dorothy Hodgkin are the kinds of people we should be looking up to. When Hodgkin was studying and working it was still unusual to see women working in science and it was women like her that paved the way for us. There were probably many other women who would have liked to have studied science but didn’t have the means or the courage to break out of the status-quo. Thanks to women like Hodgkin, women are able to work in any field they want to without penalty.

Do you think you would have the courage to be one of the first men or women to work in a field that was still dominated by the opposite sex?

Can Carbon Monoxide Prevent Brain Damage?

We’ve all heard of oxygen being used to help patients in hospitals, but have you ever heard of carbon monoxide being used for treatment?  Traditionally, we have been taught that carbon monoxide is very dangerous… it is.  We are all wary of carbon monoxide poisoning, most of us probably have carbon monoxide detectors installed in our homes as a safety precaution.  

According recent research, carbon monoxide in very low and controlled doses may actually be extremely beneficial to people who have suffered subarachnoid hemorrhages (also called hemorrhagic strokes).  A subarachnoid hemorrhage is basically bleeding between the brain and the tissues that cover it. The prognosis is not good for someone who has suffered a hemorrhagic stroke, with only a fifty percent chance of surviving the first twelve months following the stroke; of those who do survive, forty percent experience cognitive damage that may never go away (“Carbon Monoxide”).

Researchers at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have reason to believe that by administering very small amounts of carbon monoxide to patients who have suffered this kind of brain injury, they are actually able to prevent permanent brain damage. The body uses an enzyme that does essentially the same thing as the carbon monoxide, the enzyme is called oxygenase-1, it actually generates carbon monoxide. The way the carbon monoxide helps is by speeding up the elimination of a buildup of heme in the brain. Heme is a toxic component of the hemoglobin, and once a red blood cell has been damaged the heme can escape and come in direct contact with the brain cells.  The heme causes the surrounding tissues to die as it is so toxic (“Carbon Monoxide”).

I think it’s amazing that something that we all think of as being so dangerous could actually be effective in treating serious health problems like strokes. We use gas in medicine for lots of other purposes, but usually it’s gases that we consider to be “healthy” like oxygen. If this method of treatment is introduced to hospitals around the world it would have the power to change people’s lives. Suffering a subarachnoid hemorrhage would no longer mean severe cognitive impairment, eventually patients might be able to walk away unscathed.

Have you ever heard of carbon monoxide being used in medicine? What other gases are used in medicine and what are their applications?