--- title: Google Celebrates Scientist Lucy Wills for Improving the Health of Pregnant Women description: English hematologist Lucy Wills found Marmite, which contains folic acid, could treat prenatal anaemia. canonical: https://time.com/5587196/lucy-wills-google-doodle/ author: Billy Perrigo article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-05-10T11:58:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:52:48.199Z article:section: Science og:title: Google Celebrates Scientist Lucy Wills for Improving the Health of Pregnant Women og:description: English hematologist Lucy Wills found Marmite, which contains folic acid, could treat prenatal anaemia. og:url: https://time.com/5587196/lucy-wills-google-doodle/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc64c6e33a8b7d8ec/698949c0457a526515d61082/lucy-wills-131st-birthday-5156345727680512-2x.jpg?branch=production&width=782&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 782 og:image:height: 440 og:image:alt: lucy-wills-131st-birthday-5156345727680512-2x og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Google Celebrates Scientist Lucy Wills for Improving the Health of Pregnant Women twitter:description: English hematologist Lucy Wills found Marmite, which contains folic acid, could treat prenatal anaemia. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc64c6e33a8b7d8ec/698949c0457a526515d61082/lucy-wills-131st-birthday-5156345727680512-2x.jpg?branch=production&width=782&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Google Celebrates Lucy Wills, Who Found a Simple Solution to Improve the Health of Pregnant Women Everywhere > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=c9ad6981-59e8-42d3-adbf-19371b37cb72&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: How Google Makes its Doodles [Watch (HLS stream): How Google Makes its Doodles](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/upF0qp1E.m3u8) (3:23)  _Published 2018-07-07. Our videographer went to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California to meet some of the designers and coders who create the special, clever variations on the Google.com logo known as_  by [Billy Perrigo](https://time.com/author/billy-perrigo/)  ## Billy Perrigo Correspondent May 10, 2019 11:58 AM UTC  The Google Doodle on May 10, 2019 celebrated English scientist Lucy Wills The Google Doodle on May 10, 2019 celebrated English scientist Lucy Wills Google  by [Billy Perrigo](https://time.com/author/billy-perrigo/)  ## Billy Perrigo Correspondent May 10, 2019 11:58 AM UTC The pioneering [English hematologist Lucy Wills](https://www.google.com/doodles/lucy-wills-131st-birthday), whose research into women’s health during pregnancy changed the lives of millions around the globe, was celebrated in Friday’s [Google Doodle.](http://time.com/5553290/seiichi-miyake-google-doodle/) Wills conducted research into prenatal macrocytic anaemia in India in the 1920s and 1930s, where pregnant textile workers in Bombay were suffering from the condition. She hypothesized that the condition, which causes red blood cells to become enlarged and can be life-threatening, was related to the diets of those affected. After feeding monkeys with the condition the popular yeasty breakfast spread Marmite, she observed that their symptoms alleviated. Later studies based on her research found that it is a lack of folic acid, which Marmite contains, that causes the condition. Her work immediately benefited pregnant textile workers in Bombay, where she was based, and folic acid is now recommended for pregnant women everywhere. “Remembered for her wry sense of humor, Wills enjoyed mountain climbing, cross-country skiing, and rode a bicycle to work rather than driving in a car,” Google wrote. “She devoted much of her life to traveling the world and working to ensure the health of mothers-to-be.” She died in 1964; Friday marked 131 years since her birth. ## Transcript [00:01] >>The Doodle [00:07] team was able to meet Ira Glass from This American Life, [00:10] and he was just meeting us for fun. I guess, I'm not even [00:13] sure why he was here, but we talked about potentially [00:17] collaborating and they thought that it'd be fun to collaborate [00:21] with us on Valentine's Day, so I took the lead on [00:25] this project. [00:34] >>We do Valentine's Day pretty much every year, and [00:36] we've done your typical like lovebirds and, you know, [00:39] flowers and things like that. But Ira and his [00:44] team are awesome. [00:44] >>They were able to pull stories that they have collected [00:47] over the years, they've recorded new stories for us, and [00:49] they're all about love in all different respects of the word. [00:55] They sent us maybe 8 or 10 stories and they're all really [00:58] fun and really sweet. [00:59] >>The stories run the [ unk ]. There is [01:03] a story about middle school love. [01:03] >>I was in the cafeteria, just got [01:07] on a drink of root beer and she walks up to me. [01:11] >>There is a story about a new bride who's in doubt that [01:14] she made a mistake. [01:14] >>My husband, me and I, we're just so worried, his face I [01:14] could tell. I said, " Where he could be ," you know, and [01:20] I-- and I called the police because I thought [01:24] he got lost or something happened. [01:28] >>When I first got the audio from Ira, my co- worker and I [01:31] listened to it together and we wrote down bullet points of [01:34] where we wanted to have a little drawing come up. [01:37] >>One of my favorite stories, it involves middle schoolers. [01:43] We're titling it, " Puppy Love" so true to the title, I just-- I just [01:46] drew everyone as a dog. [01:47] >>Each stories are-- containing a little candy heart. [01:47] >>And when you click on it, the heart will flip, [01:52] the audio will play and you will also see the images that [01:55] we've drawn to accompany the phrases. So, [01:59] now we are all going to brainstorms together because we [02:02] need the creative side and we also need the technical side [02:04] to tell us what is possible and what isn't possible. For this [02:08] one, it's a pretty conservative on the interactive side, [02:12] because we didn't want to overshadow the audio. When I [02:15] first started, they were no engineers on the team, we only [02:17] did static doodles, but since then, we've started doing more [02:21] animated stuff, more interactive work, and for that we [02:24] needed a dedicated team. [02:24] >>Some of our most like ambitious to those have come [02:26] from engineers that are just incredibly talented [02:30] and spare similar time for our projects. [02:33] >>Sometimes the illustrators will come up with an idea that [02:36] is way too wacky and just not possible yet. The technology [02:41] hasn't been invented, but sometimes we're too [02:43] conservative and it's great to have the engineers there to [02:46] tell us that we can actually be way wackier with our ideas. [02:53] The relationship with my engineer on this was to just keep [02:56] my files size at a reasonable capacity, I was getting [03:00] a little bit ambitious with how many frames I wanted to draw [03:03] and my engineers said, " Hey, you need to double it ." [03:07] >>We tried to do as many doodles as we possibly can. [03:08] We're a pretty small team, relative to how many audiences [03:11] are out there [ unk ], but yeah, we-- you never know what [03:14] you're gonna get. 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