即使职业完全与科学不沾边的中国人,大多也听说过中国引以为傲的胰岛素研究。但如果不在晶体学或者相关领域内,知道多萝西·霍奇金这个名字的人就不多了,包括身为科学记者、自以为对科学人物颇有了解的我自己。上海科技教育出版社的总编潘涛最初向我提议翻译多萝西传记的时候,我茫然地说不曾听说过这个人。等到对她的生平略有了解,并知道了她与中国胰岛素研究的联系后,茫然就变成了诧异。多萝西·克劳福特·霍奇金(DorothyCrowfoot Hodgkin,1910-1994),伟大的晶 Most Chinese, even though their careers are completely science-minded, have heard about China’s pride in insulin research. But if you are not in crystallography or related fields, there are not many people who know the name Dorothy Hodgkin, including myself as a science journalist who thinks he knows science figures well. When Pan Tao, editor in chief of Shanghai Science and Education Publishing House, initially proposed to me to translate Dorothy’s biography, I said blankly that I had never heard of this person before. Wait until a little understanding of her life, and know her contact with the study of insulin in China, the loss became astonishment. Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910-1994), The Great Crystal