Rosalind Franklin was an British chemist and X-ray crystallographer born in London, England on July 25, 1920 to Ellis Arthur Franklin and Muriel Frances Waley. In her early life, she was clever, academic, and fascinated with science. Franklin was born to a wealthy family and was fortunate enough to attend several scientific girl’s schools, including St. Paul’s Girls’ School in London. She went on to study physical chemistry at Newman College, Cambridge. After graduation, she received a fellowship from the university to conduct research in physical chemistry at the University of Cambridge but was reassigned with the start of World War II.
In order to aid the British war effort, Franklin applied her skills as a London air raid warden and research the applications of carbon and coal for the British Coal Utilisation Research Association. With the end of the war, Franklin applied her research on coal in her doctoral thesis, and received her doctorate degree from the University of Cambridge in 1945. Franklin then moved to Paris and studied X-ray diffraction technology at the State Chemical Laboratory–knowledge that would later prove to be essential in her research on DNA. At the age of 30, she moved back to London to work at King’s College. Her research here would lead to drastic leaps in our knowledge of DNA and its mysterious structure.
Through X-ray crystallography, Franklin was able to derive images of DNA, leading her to discover its B-form and density. She was also able to conclude that DNA has a helical structure. However, due to the competitive and misogynistic nature of the academic world, Franklin’s work was given without her consent to two researchers at Cambridge who were also looking at the structure of DNA. With Franklin’s famous photo 51 in hand, these men, James Watson and Francis Crick, were able to form a solid understanding of DNA’s structure, the elusive double helix. Watson and Crick announced their discovery and later received the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine without giving any credit to Franklin. Word of her contributions was not released until Watson himself published the book, The Double Helix, where he spoke cruelly of Franklin even while disclosing that her data was given to him without her knowledge or permission.
As a result of the toxic work environment of King’s College, Franklin left to join the Crystallography Laboratory at Birkbeck College where she continued her research on coal and looked at RNA’s role in virus reproduction. Franklin’s research led to further breakthroughs in our understanding of the tobacco mosaic virus, the polio virus, and the method by which proteins and nucleic acids work in tandem to transmit genetic information. At the young age of 37, Franklin tragically passed away of ovarian cancer, which, ironically, was likely caused by her exposure to X-ray radiation in her work. Franklin died unmarried with no children, having dedicated her life to science. As a Jewish woman in the STEM field, Rosalind Franklin and the hardships she faced, are a powerful reminder of all the marginalized people who are denied credit for their work, even to this day.
- By Mia Raimondi
Sources:
- Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science–and the World by Rachel Swaby
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