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W. T. Astbury

© the artist's estate. Image credit: The Royal Institution

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Notes

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William Thomas Astbury was physicist who made pioneering studies of biological molecules using X-ray crystallography. After graduating from Cambridge he worked under William Henry Bragg at the Royal Institution (Ri). In the 1920s and 1930s the Davy Faraday Laboratory at the Ri was one of the world's leading X-ray crystallography laboratories through which many of its major practitioners passed, apart from Astbury this included J. D. Bernal, Kathleen Lonsdale and Dorothy Hodgkin.

Astbury’s work on properties of fibrous substances like keratin laid the groundwork for work such as Linus Pauling’s discovery of the alpha helix. He also studied the structure of DNA, making insights which helped later researchers determine its structure.

The Royal Institution

London

Title

W. T. Astbury

Date

1955

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 61.1 x W 45.8 cm

Accession number

RIIC 2049

Acquisition method

presented by Mrs Astbury, 1962

Work type

Painting

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The Royal Institution

21 Albermarle Street, London, Greater London W1S 4BS England

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