Question 1

True or false: All of Hodgkin's major discoveries were made while she was blind in one eye from a lab accident.

Accepted Answer

False. She had no such blindness; her main physical challenge was rheumatoid arthritis, not vision loss from a lab accident.

Question 2

True or false: She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964, the only British woman to win that prize alone.

Accepted Answer

True. She remains the only British woman to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry solo, for her work on vitamin B12.

Question 3

True or false: Dorothy Hodgkin was the first person to determine the structure of DNA using X-ray diffraction.

Accepted Answer

False. Watson and Crick used Rosalind Franklin's data; Hodgkin never worked on DNA. She focused on penicillin, vitamin B12, and insulin.

Question 4

True or false: Dorothy Hodgkin discovered the structure of penicillin using X-ray crystallography.

Accepted Answer

True. She solved penicillin's structure in 1945, a breakthrough that helped mass-produce the antibiotic during WWII.

Question 5

True or false: She was awarded the Nobel Prize twice, once for chemistry and once for peace.

Accepted Answer

False. Hodgkin won only the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. She was a peace activist but never won a second Nobel.

Question 6

True or false: Hodgkin's hands were severely deformed by rheumatoid arthritis, yet she continued precise crystal work.

Accepted Answer

True. Diagnosed at 28, her swollen joints made delicate manipulation nearly impossible, but she adapted with special tools.

Question 7

True or false: She was a close friend of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who studied chemistry under Hodgkin.

Accepted Answer

True. Thatcher studied X-ray crystallography under Hodgkin at Oxford and they remained lifelong friends.

Question 8

True or false: Hodgkin used a computer to solve the structure of insulin, making her a pioneer in computational chemistry.

Accepted Answer

False. She solved insulin's structure manually over decades, using physical models and X-ray plates. Computers were not central to her work.

Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Trivia Questions