Round about 1910, human nature changed--V. Woolf...and Pynchon's crystals' trope

[Mark Kohut]

Today on Earth‎12 MAY 1910: Dorothy Mary Crowfoot is born in Cairo, Egypt of 
English parents. Under her married name of Dorothy Hodgkin, she advances X-ray 
crystallography, a method of determining the structure of atoms within a 
crystal. She confirms the structure of penicillin, greatly advances awareness of 
insulin, and analyzes the structure of vitamin B12. For the latter work she 
receives a Nobel Prize in chemistry.