Rosalind Franklin, also known as The Dark Lady of Biology, lived a short, educated life. Born into a highly educated family, and attending a girl's private school in her early years, Rosalind was exposed to many different learning environments, which mostly included science. Rosalind knew, at the early age of fifteen, that she wanted to be a scientist, and though her parents were opposed to her following this particular career path, she went on to follow her ambitions. She attended University at Cambridge in 1938 where she studied biochemistry and physics. She earned her PhD after conducting research and publishing a paper on the porosity of coal in 1945. After earning her degree, Rosalind sought work. She moved to Paris and became a laboratory assistant to Jacques Mering, an X-ray crystallographer, and learned how to incorporate X-ray crystallography into biochemistry. Using this new method, she conducted further research on coal and its properties.
In 1951, Rosalind began working as a researcher at King's College in London. She initially believed that she would be working as a co-researcher along side the rest of the researchers working in the biophysics unit. But when she arrived, she was moved to the basement where she was assigned to work on diffraction of DNA fibers, and research on DNA and RNA.
During her time at King's College, she collected extensive amounts of data on DNA, including several photos resulting from X-ray diffraction. Using this data, Rosalind had already constructed an image of DNA structure, but she never published any of her work since she saw it as unfinished. She filed away all of her data, and all of the photos. Little did she know that one of her colleagues, Maurice Wilkins, had been looking through her data and had taken on of her photos, known now as photo 51, and had shown it to two men working on the discovery of the structure of DNA, James Watson and Francis Crick. Using this data, Watson and Crick were able to construct a three dimensional model of DNA. They published their discovery, giving no credit to Rosalind Franklin. In fact, Rosalind was not even mentioned until 1968, ten years after her death, in Watson's book The Double Helix. In his book, Watson described Rosalind as "...belligerent, emotional and unable to interpret her own data..". Watson and Crick received the Nobel prize in 1968 as well, and since Rosalind's death has preceded this, she was not given any of the credit.
After working at King's college in London, Rosalind spent time researching tobacco mosaic virus at Birkbeck University in London. And while in the U.S. researching Polio virus, Rosalind discovered a lump on her abdomen. After many trips to the hospital, it was discovered that she had two tumors, which were spreading cancerous cells rapidly throughout her body. As medical treatments failed, and her symptoms worsening, Rosalind began to fade. She chose to spend the time she had left with family and friends. She passed away on April 16, 1958, at the age of 37, just two years after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
It is suspected that the cancer was due to many long periods of exposure to radiation from x-ray diffraction since she didn't always use protective gear.
Though her life was short, Rosalind Franklin's experiments and research proved crucial to the discovery of the structure of DNA which is extremely important in biological and genetic research today. She deserves recognition for her achievements, and acknowledgement for the discovery of DNA and RNA structure. If only the world could have experienced more of Rosalind Franklin.
In 1951, Rosalind began working as a researcher at King's College in London. She initially believed that she would be working as a co-researcher along side the rest of the researchers working in the biophysics unit. But when she arrived, she was moved to the basement where she was assigned to work on diffraction of DNA fibers, and research on DNA and RNA.
During her time at King's College, she collected extensive amounts of data on DNA, including several photos resulting from X-ray diffraction. Using this data, Rosalind had already constructed an image of DNA structure, but she never published any of her work since she saw it as unfinished. She filed away all of her data, and all of the photos. Little did she know that one of her colleagues, Maurice Wilkins, had been looking through her data and had taken on of her photos, known now as photo 51, and had shown it to two men working on the discovery of the structure of DNA, James Watson and Francis Crick. Using this data, Watson and Crick were able to construct a three dimensional model of DNA. They published their discovery, giving no credit to Rosalind Franklin. In fact, Rosalind was not even mentioned until 1968, ten years after her death, in Watson's book The Double Helix. In his book, Watson described Rosalind as "...belligerent, emotional and unable to interpret her own data..". Watson and Crick received the Nobel prize in 1968 as well, and since Rosalind's death has preceded this, she was not given any of the credit.
After working at King's college in London, Rosalind spent time researching tobacco mosaic virus at Birkbeck University in London. And while in the U.S. researching Polio virus, Rosalind discovered a lump on her abdomen. After many trips to the hospital, it was discovered that she had two tumors, which were spreading cancerous cells rapidly throughout her body. As medical treatments failed, and her symptoms worsening, Rosalind began to fade. She chose to spend the time she had left with family and friends. She passed away on April 16, 1958, at the age of 37, just two years after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
It is suspected that the cancer was due to many long periods of exposure to radiation from x-ray diffraction since she didn't always use protective gear.
Though her life was short, Rosalind Franklin's experiments and research proved crucial to the discovery of the structure of DNA which is extremely important in biological and genetic research today. She deserves recognition for her achievements, and acknowledgement for the discovery of DNA and RNA structure. If only the world could have experienced more of Rosalind Franklin.
This image, Photograph 51, is the result of an experiment in which X-rays are diffracted through crystallized DNA. It takes hundreds of hours of exposure to radiation for one picture to be made. This particular photo is one of many but is the most precise in the patterns of the structure of the DNA strand. Though previously filed away by Franklin, this picture was brought to the world by Maurice Wilkins, and later lead to the construction of a three dimensional model of DNA and it's structural as well as functional characteristics. It is one of Rosalind Franklin's biggest achievements. This image aided later scientists in the discovery of the structure of DNA and RNA. Two better known scientists, James Watson and Francis Crick, used this image to create a three dimensional model of DNA. If not for this experiment conducted by Franklin, and the image that resulted, the information that we have collected on genetic material through out history may not be available to us today.
I chose this as my abstract because without Rosalind Franklin, we might not have been able to identify this strand of DNA or any parts of it. Without her, we would not know much about this picture at all. This picture represents one of Rosalind's achievements and one of the biggest discoveries in scientific history.