Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958)
Rosalind Franklin was a physical chemist who is best remembered for her contributions to the studies of coal, DNA, and plant viruses. She was born in London on July 25, 1920, the daughter of well-to-do Jewish parents. She received an excellent background in physics and chemistry at St. Paul's Girls' School and entered Cambridge University in 1938. At the age of 22, she gave up her fellowship to take her first position as a physical chemist at the British Coal Utilization Research Association. Between 1947 and 1950 she worked in a lab in Paris. It was ...
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Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958)
Rosalind Franklin was a physical chemist who is best remembered for her contributions to the studies of coal, DNA, and plant viruses. She was born in London on July 25, 1920, the daughter of well-to-do Jewish parents. She received an excellent background in physics and chemistry at St. Paul's Girls' School and entered Cambridge University in 1938. At the age of 22, she gave up her fellowship to take her first position as a physical chemist at the British Coal Utilization Research Association. Between 1947 and 1950 she worked in a lab in Paris. It was there that she learned X-ray diffraction techniques, working closely with crystallographer Jacques Mering. In 1951, she left France for a three year research fellowship at King's College. Working with poor equipment, Franklin rigged a system for taking high-resoloution photographs of single fibers of DNA. In the autumn of 1956, Rosalind Franklin learned she had cancer, and on April 16, 1958 she died at the age of 37. Rosalind Franklin's crystallographic work gave experimental backing for the double helix model of DNA presented by Watson, Crick, and Wilkins. After her death, the three were awarded the Nobel Prize, giving no credit to Franklin for her invaluable work.
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Rosalind Franklin was a recognized authority in industrial physical chemistry when Watson and Crick (Cambridge) attended her seminar in 1951 at King's College. Her analysis of the structure of coals laid the foundation of today's industrial carbon fiber technology. These studies in coal prompted her to perfect x-ray diffraction techniques which she then applied to DNA as part of her research at Kings College. Based on her work, Watson and Crick realized that DNA consisted of two chains running in opposite directions, the basic bond lengths and angles.
Unkown to Franklin, her work and in particular her famous Photo 51 showing the x-ray diffraction of wet DNA, was shown to Watson and Crick by Franklin's discontent collaborator, Wilkins. This information proved crucial in helping Watson and Crick apply their mathematical models which eventually lead to their discovery of the specific structure of DNA. In a moment of scientific euphoria compounded by less than complete scientific honesty, Watson and Crick published their results in the scientific journal "" (25 April 1953, vol. 171, pp. 737-738) without acknowledging the influence of Franklin's work. Wilkins and Franklin each have articles in the of Nature, Franklin's showing an image of the now famous Photo 51.
Franklin, went on to study the tobacco mosaic virus, and continued her work in absolute dedication, despite having been diagnosed with cancer in 1956 (probably due to the chemicals she was using). She died two years later, 37 years old, never knowing how much her work had played a role in Watson and Crick's discovery. In 1963 they received the Nobel prize for their discovery, along with Wilkins, Franklin's collaborator. In 1968 Watson's popular book, , recounted the events leading to their ultimate discovery, making clear for the first time how critical Franklin's experimental work had been. Franklin's social isolation prompted by the contempt male scientists showed toward her as a woman-scientist, is one of the tragedies in the history of science.
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