Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c115IR // #c115Verbatim excerpt
As an extremely large molecule (and the largest vitamin known, as well as the only one to contain a metal), it posed a challenging problem for the great crystallographer Dorothy Hodgkin, but solve it she did; published in 1956, it was the first structure of a metalloenzyme to be reported.

— Source: Every Molecule Matters (Simon Cotton)

[Use when]

When a structure problem is historically load-bearing for a whole method.

[Why it matters]

Size + metal made B12 a crystallography boss fight — and a first.

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