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    Rosalind Elise Franklin

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    Rosalind Franklin was a pioneering British biophysicist and chemist whose research was integral to the understanding of DNA structure. Despite facing discrimination as a woman in science, her x-ray diffraction images of DNA were crucial to Watson and Crick's discovery of the DNA double helix structure. However, Franklin died of cancer at age 37 before the significance of her work was fully recognized.

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    Rosalind Elise Franklin

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    api-309441970
    153 views1 page
    Rosalind Franklin was a pioneering British biophysicist and chemist whose research was integral to the understanding of DNA structure. Despite facing discrimination as a woman in science, her x-ray diffraction images of DNA were crucial to Watson and Crick's discovery of the DNA double helix structure. However, Franklin died of cancer at age 37 before the significance of her work was fully recognized.

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    rosalind elise franklin

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    Rosalind Franklin was a pioneering British biophysicist and chemist whose research was integral to the understanding of DNA structure. Despite facing discrimination as a woman in science, her x-ray diffraction images of DNA were crucial to Watson and Crick's discovery of the DNA double helix structure. However, Franklin died of cancer at age 37 before the significance of her work was fully recognized.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    153 views1 page

    Rosalind Elise Franklin

    Uploaded by

    api-309441970
    Rosalind Franklin was a pioneering British biophysicist and chemist whose research was integral to the understanding of DNA structure. Despite facing discrimination as a woman in science, her x-ray diffraction images of DNA were crucial to Watson and Crick's discovery of the DNA double helix structure. However, Franklin died of cancer at age 37 before the significance of her work was fully recognized.

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    Rosalind Elsie Franklin

    There is probably no other woman scientist in history surrounded with as much controversy
    regarding their life and work as me, Rosalind Franklin. I was responsible for much of the
    research and discovery work that led to the understanding of the structure of deoxyribonucleic
    acid, DNA. The story of DNA is a tale of competition and intrigue, told one way in James
    Watson's book The Double Helix, and quite another in Anne Sayre's study, Rosalind Franklin and
    DNA. To hear more about my short but exciting life, click the link below.
    I was born in London on July 25, 1920. My destiny was to become a pioneer in the field of
    molecular biology. I attended one of the few girls schools in London that taught physics and
    chemistry. Even though my father was against higher education and wanted me to become a
    social worker, my dedication eventually won out. I studied at Newnham College, Cambridge,
    and graduated in 1941. I returned and earned a doctorate in physical chemistry from Cambridge
    University in 1945.
    I learned x-ray diffraction techniques and returned to England in 1951 as a research associate in
    John Randalls laboratory at Kings College, London. It was during this time that I met Maurice
    Wilkins, who worked on a separate project in a separate group, although both of us were
    concerned with DNA. When Randall gave me the responsibility for the DNA project, he left, but
    when he returned he must have misunderstood my role. He treated me like an assistant of some
    sort, but we were actually peers. Its no wonder he did considering the attitude toward women at
    the time. At the University, women were not even allowed in the dining rooms and there were
    many occasions where my colleagues went to men-only pubs after work.
    I worked diligently on the DNA project. My x-ray photographs of DNA were simply beautiful.
    Between the years 1951 and 1953 I was just on the verge of solving the DNA structure.
    Unfortunately, Maurice Wilkins and I never did quite see eye to eye which slowed down my
    work on crystallographic portraits of DNA. When Mr. Wilkins showed another scientist Mr.
    Watson one of my photographs, he saw what I had been looking for all along. That rat published
    an article in Nature as soon as he could. Even though my work did appear as a supporting article
    in the same issue of the journal, I do not believe that I received the amount of credit that was due
    to me for all of the extensive work that I did.
    I died on April 16, 1958 from ovarian cancer at the young age of 37. To add insult to injury, only
    four short years after I died, James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins received a Nobel
    Prize for the double-helix model of DNA in 1962. My lifes greatest achievement was ultimately
    credited to three men. It is such a shame to have been born into a time of such great
    enlightenment and at the same time, such great discrimination.

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