The X-Ray Crystallography of Penicillin and Insulin

Dorothy Hodgkin worked in a field called X-ray crystallography. This is where you grow crystals of complex biological molecules like penicillin or insulin and fire X-rays through them. And this results in what's called a diffraction pattern. So depending on the layout of the atoms, you can draw up an electron density map. Electron's been one of the sub-obtonic particles of any particular element. Here she is here, celebrated on a stamp with the model of insulin, I think it is.