Understanding the molecule’s structure was the key to changing that.
Dorothy spent years coaxing penicillin crystals to give up their secrets. The molecule was more complex than anything crystallography had previously attempted. Colleagues said it couldn’t be done — too many atoms, too intricate an arrangement. Dorothy mapped every atom anyway, revealing the twisted beta-lactam ring at the structure’s heart that gave penicillin its antimicrobial power. That knowledge allowed chemists to synthesize the drug more efficiently, to modify it, to eventually create an entire family of antibiotics derived from it.
Penicillin moved from scarce miracle to mass-produced medicine. The number of lives saved since is incalculable.
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