Political activist and Nobel winner Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin pioneered X-ray crystallography to discover the molecular structures of penicillin and insulin.
The former Columbia University professor’s early work helped illuminate the structure of penicillin, allowing chemists to make variants and broaden the scope of antibiotic treatments.
By sequencing and analyzing the genomes of more than 20 species of Penicillium fungi, researches uncovered genes encoding for numerous bioactive compounds, including antibiotics.
Ancient hominins in northern Spain ate mushrooms, pine nuts, and moss, and may have used Penicillium mold and other natural products to sooth toothache pain.