Design on X-ray structures

  In a guest post by Scott Keir at the Nature Network London Editor (a.k.a. Matt Brown)'s blog, I learn that the picture on the left, Dorothy Hodgkin's famous crystal structure of insulin, was used as the inspiration for the wallpaper design on the right. Dorothy Hodgkin's structure was the first time that anyone had used the X-ray diffraction pattern from a crystal to determine the three-dimensional, atomic structure of a protein. This particular molecule is of great medical significance for the treatment of diabetes, so Professor Hodgkin's achievement was doubly magnificent. Since I first learned of this achievement many years ago now, I myself went on to use the technique of X-ray diffraction to determine the mechanism of action of muscle fibres (which have the structure of a crystal lattice), though my feeble attempts were nowhere near those of the brilliant Prof Hodgkin. When she won science's ultimate award, one contemporary newspaper headline shouted "Housewife wins Nobel prize" (so the story goes). She was also a wonderfully generous person: in her later years, even though super-eminent and rather old, she quickly acceded to my sister's request to attend her and her fellow-undergraduates' end of year meeting, to talk to them about her life in science. People like Dorothy Hodgkin are such admirable role models: anyone interested in finding out more about her might like to check out the very good biography of her by Georgina Ferry.
But to return to the wallpaper. According to Scott, table surfaces, lace, plates, carpets, wallpaper, glass, fabrics, and even ashtrays were created from this Robert Sevant design, as part of the Festival of Britain in the 1950s, to celebrate the “essence of Britain” being “of Newton, of atomic research, of Captain Cook, of nuclear physics, and great works of humanity”.
For more information, see "From Atoms to Patterns", an exhibition at the Wellcome Collection, London, from now to 10 August. Scott writes that it "succeeds in provoking questions about designers’ inspirations, the beauty of science, and the attitudes of the science and design communities to each other, then and now. It contains a fascinating insight into British science, British design, and British optimism for a modern future, at a key moment in history for all three."

Comments

[Georgina Ferry]

It is indeed an excellent exhibition, and thanks for the kind words about my book. The diagram Dorothy Hodgkin supplied to the designers did not, however, show the crystal structure of insulin, which she did not solve until 1969. Hodgkin's diagram was a 'Patterson map', which she hoped would reveal the positions of heavy atoms in the insulin molecule.
Neither was she the first to use X-ray diffraction to solve a protein structure - that honour goes to John Kendrew for myoglobin, closely followed by Max Perutz for haemoglobin, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Perutz also contributed Patterson maps of haemoglobin to the Festival Pattern Group, and you can see ties, plates and dress fabrics with the 'haemoglobin' design in the exhibition. More about Max in my latest book Max Perutz and the Secret of Life.

[Maxine]

Thank you for your comments, Georgina, and you are of course quite right about Kendrew and Perutz, and the Patterson function. Your book on Perutz is on my list to buy as a Christmas present for the active biophysicist in my family whose memory would not have been as unreliable on these matters as mine.

[x-ray fluorescence]

Hi,
Nice informative post.X-raytechniques are a family of non-destructive analytical techniques which reveal information about the crystallographic structure, chemical composition, and physical properties of materials and thin films......