The legacy of women to crystallography
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/arbor.2015.772n2002Keywords:
science, scientists, discrimination, gender balance, women, female pioneersAbstract
It is common to hear that X-ray crystallography is particularly welcoming to women. This assertion is perhaps based in the crucial contribution that a few brilliant women made to crystallography in the very early days. Therefore, this chapter will be mainly dedicated to honour the exceptional legacy of Kathleen Lonsdale, Dorothy Hodgkin, Rosalind Franklin and Isabella Karle, who were pioneers in a time when there was a strong discrimination against women in all aspects of life. Other prominent women, like Caroline MacGillavry, Olga Kennard, Eleanor Dodson, Louise Johnson, Jenny Glusker, Jane Richardson, among others, contributed to disseminate crystallography worldwide, providing the fundamental tools that resulted in the modern crystallography. The outstanding results that crystallography have provided to life sciences in the last years is well represented by the Nobel Prize awarded to Ada Yonath in 2009 for its contribution to the understanding of ribosome, the largest structure solved up-to-now.
Downloads
References
Glusker, J. P. and Trueblood, K. N. (2010). Crystal Structure Analysis. A Primer (3rd. ed.). Oxford University Press.
Hodgkin, D. C. (1965). The X-ray Analysis of Complicated Molecules. Science, 150, pp. 979-988. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.150.3699.979 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.150.3699.979
Karle, I. (1973). Successful Women in the Sciences: Analysis of Determinants. I. Individual Life Experiences. Crystallographer. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 208, pp. 11-14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1973.tb30812.x PMid:4572877
Lonsdale, K. Y. (1931). An X-Ray Analysis of the Structure of Hexachlorobenzene, Using the Fourier Method. Proceedings of the Royal Society, 133, 822, pp. 536-552. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1931.0166
Lonsdale, K. Y. (1936). Simplified Structure Factor and Electron Density Formulae for the 230 Space Groups of Mathematical Crystallography. London: Bell & Sons.
Maddox, B. (2003). Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA. London: Harper Collins.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2015 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
© CSIC. Manuscripts published in both the printed and online versions of this Journal are the property of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, and quoting this source is a requirement for any partial or full reproduction.All contents of this electronic edition, except where otherwise noted, are distributed under a “Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International” (CC BY 4.0) License. You may read here the basic information and the legal text of the license. The indication of the CC BY 4.0 License must be expressly stated in this way when necessary.
Self-archiving in repositories, personal webpages or similar, of any version other than the published by the Editor, is not allowed.
