In 1947, Rosalind traveled to Paris and spent roughly three to four years at the labratoire Central des Services Chimques de I’Etat. An associate by the name of Adrienne Weill helped her to get a position at that facility (Msn Encarta). While spending time in Paris, Rosalind began learning how to use x-ray diffraction (also known as x-ray crystallography is the science of determining the arrangement of atoms within a crystal from the manner in which a beam of x-rays is scattered from the electrons within the crystal) techniques to study the structure of carbon. She became very skilled at the job and was good at detailing the structures of graphitizing (To convert into graphite, as by a heating process) and non-graphitizing carbons helped form the basis for the development of carbon fibers and new heat-resistant materials (Profiles in Science). Rosalind earned an international reputation among coal chemists and enjoyed the collegial professional culture of the Laboratoire Central (Blog:NPR). Among working and experimenting with carbon material it was said that she supposedly formed many lifelong friendships at Laboratoire Central (Profiles in Science). Rosalind diligently stuck with her studies and was always engaged in every aspect to understand or answer questions about her research.
By 1949, though Rosalind was happy living in France, she wanted a change, so she began seeking a position in England. A man by the name of Charles Coulson, a theoretical chemist, suggested that Rosalind further her experimenting with x-ray diffraction studies on a larger scale of biological molecules. Rosalind’s profound interest and desire of furthering her experimenting awarded her in 1950. Rosalind was awarded a three-year Turner and Newall Fellowship to work in John T. Randall’s Biophysics Unit at King’s College in London (Profiles in Science). Her excellence proved that it was not going to be undermined. Rosalind proved to humble and a very accepting to suggestions that could help build her career.
Randall had originally planned to have Franklin build up an x-ray Diffraction section and work on analyzing proteins. At the suggestion of the assistant lab chief, Maurice Wilkins, however, Randall asked Rosalind to investigate DNA instead. Wilkins had just begun doing x-ray diffraction work on some unusually good DNA samples. He expected that he and Rosalind would work together (Gribble, Bobbi). However, Randall’s communication with Rosalind did not convey this; it was said that only she and graduate student Raymond Gosling would do the DNA work. Rosalind’s relationship with Wilkins would have suffered from this misunderstanding. Animosity between Rosalind and Wilkins obviously did not diminish even past her six months of being at King’s college. Rosalind began working with her new partner Gosling; she took increasingly clear x-ray diffraction photos of DNA (Maddox, Kathy). After some time Rosalind was able to quickly discover that there were two forms of DNA wet and dry which produced very different pictures. She realized that the wet form was probably a helical (coiled structures are very common in many biological materials) structure, with the phosphates on the outside of the ribose chains (its related compound, deoxyribose, are the building blocks of the backbone chains in nucleic acids). Her mathematical analyses of the dry form diffractions, however, did not indicate a helical structure, and she spent over a year trying to resolve the differences. By early 1953, she had concluded that both forms had two helices (Profiles in Science).
After the discovery of both forms of DNA, Rosalind also succeeded in developing an ingenious and laborious method to separate the two forms, providing the first DNA crystals pure enough to yield interpretable diffraction patterns (Ardell, David). She gave quantitative details about the shape and size of the double helix. No one had been able to produce such photos and information about DNA. In addition, Rosalind identified the location of phosphate sugars in DNA. The most important missing piece of the puzzle, which she could not discover from her data, was how the bases paired on the inside of the helix, and thus the secret of heredity itself (“Why Rosalind Franklin”).
Meanwhile, at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge, Francis Crick and James Watson were working on a theoretical model of DNA. “Though not in close communication with Rosalind, in January of 1953 they obtained crucial insight about DNA’s structure from one of her x-ray diffraction photos shown to them by Wilkins, and from a summary of her unpublished research submitted to the Medical Research Council” (Profiles in Science). They used “photo 51, in order to build their DNA model” (“Why Rosalind Franklin”). Watson and Crick never told Rosalind that they had seen her work, and they did not directly acknowledge their debt to her work when they published their announcement in the science journal “Nature” that April when they solved the missing puzzle. Crick later admitted that Rosalind was two steps away from realizing the correct structure in the spring of 1953 (MSN Encarta).
By mid 1953, Rosalind had arranged to transfer her fellowship to J.D. Bernal’s crystallography laboratory at Birkbeck College (Science Odyssey). She decided to include the experimenting of viruses, on top of her experiments with DNA. By assembling a team, Rosalind made detailed x-ray diffraction photos of a couple of viruses. Her analyses of the tobacco mosaic virus revealed that genetic material RNA was embedded in the inner wall of its protective protein shell (Profiles in Science). Rosalind and her team were not sure of what they found, which ended up with her having to collaborate with other virus researchers in the Unites States. Rosalind decided to spend two lengthy durations of time in the U.S. in 1954 and 1956(Gribble, Bobbi). She also established a network of contacts all over the country, including Robley Williams (an early biophysicist and virologist), Barry Commoner (an American biologist, college professor, and eco-socialist), and Wendell Stanley (an American biochemist, virologist and Nobel prize laureate). Her expertise in virus structure was recognized by the Royal Institution in 1956, when its director honored her with a request to construct numerous large-scale models of rod-shaped and spherical viruses for the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair Science Exhibition (Profiles in Science).
Rosalind’s trips to the U.S. allowed her achievements and findings to be glorified with a few accolades. Unfortunately, by fall of 1956 Rosalind was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. For the next eighteen months she underwent several surgeries and other treatments; she had several periods of remission. She decided to continue working in her lab and seek additional funding for her research team. However, during her uphill battle with her research and ovarian cancer, her life ended at 37 years old on April 16, 1958 in London (“Why Rosalind Franklin”).
Rosalind was a woman well known for her accomplishments but, not much credit was awarded to her after all of her hard work. Her discovery of the DNA structure garnered the most public attention. Cricks, Watson, and Wilkins all shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for their work on the DNA structure (Gribble, Bobbi). Without Rosalind’s photographic skills Cricks, Watson, and Wilkins wouldn’t have been able to construct a model of DNA and probably wouldn’t have won the Nobel Prize. Interesting enough they still had no problem to use her research information because they felt that it would help solve the problem of their research.
Rosalind’s magnificent findings were most definitely admired and played a huge role in understanding the structure of DNA today. She was a heroic, strong and persistent individual that with determination was able to crack open the mystery of DNA. After all she accomplished it is unfortunate that she died at age 37, since she was still so young. Rosalind will never be forgotten for her find.
Citations
Ardell, David . "National Health museum." Rosalind Franklin (1920 - 1958). 25 Oct 2006. AE. 14 Feb 2008 <http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/AB/BC/Rosalind_Franklin.html>.
Gribble, Bobbi. "Rosalind Franklin." Minnesota State University 2002 02 Feb 2008 <http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/fghij/franklin_rosalind.html>.
Maddox, Kathy. Dark Lady. 1st. Minn.: 2002.
"A Science Odyssey." People and Discoveries. 1998. PBS. 1 Mar 2008 <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bofran.html>.
http://www.newn.cam.ac.uk/
"Why Rosalind Franklin?." Who was Rosalind Franklin. 2004. Rosalind Franklin University of medicine and science. 1 Mar 2008 <http://www.lifeindiscovery.com/whyrosalindfranklin/index.html>.
"Rosalind Franklin." MSN encarta. 2007. Encarta. 4 Mar 2008 <http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761564570/rosalind_franklin.html>.
"Rosalind Franklin: Finder of DNA." [Weblog NPR] 06 Oct 2002. NPR. 2 Mar 2008 <http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2002/oct/darklady/>.
"Profiles in Science." http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/KR/Views/Exhibit/narrative/biographical.html.
U.S. National Library of Medicine. 24 Feb 2008 <http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/KR/Views/Exhibit/narrative/biographical.html>.