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Discovering the structure of haemoglobin

Until Dr Max Perutz, no-one had seriously attempted to map a molecule that was made up of 10,000 atoms. In 1959, after 22 years, he was finally successful.

What was it in September of 1959 that caused an Austrian scientist to rush out from his lab and buy children's modelling clay?

Austrian born Dr Max Perutz had made one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the 20th century. For the first time, he could see what a molecule of haemoglobin looked like in 3D. Using lectures and programmes from the 成人快手 archive, Josephine McDermott tells the story of how his fellow Cambridge University students in the UK thought he was 鈥渕ad鈥 to try and map a molecule made of 10,000 atoms, and the 鈥渁ppalling task鈥 which took 22 years to complete.

It was an achievement that earned him and his colleague John Kendrew the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1962. It has since contributed to the study of blood diseases like sickle cell anaemia and Huntington's disease.

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(Photo: Dr Max Perutz in 1962. Credit: AP)

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9 minutes

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Monday 08:50GMT

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