A Brief summary of the Life of Rosalind Franklin (1920 - 1958)
(Blog:NPR)
Over the years many discoveries have been found by many scientists, but one of the most
influential was discovery of the double-helix structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (commonly
known as DNA). Rosalind Franklin, a woman with a creative mind, raised much controversy
about her discoveries with DNA. However, she never received the recognition that she
deserved for such an extraordinary find. Even after her death, credit was given to others who
benefited from her research and findings. Despite never receiving the accolades that she
deserved, many haven’t forgotten about her or her greatest discovery.
Rosalind was born in London on July 25, 1920. She was the second in a prominent AngloJewish family (Profiles in Science). Rosalind and her family were known to be very
accomplished individuals that achieved many goals.
Rosalind attended Saint Paul’s school for girls, which is a preparatory career institute that
focuses on strengthening talents. While attending the school, Rosalind demonstrated an early
aptitude for math and science, and an easy facility for other languages such as French, Italian,
and German (Profiles in Science). In 1938, Rosalind left Saint Paul’s to enroll at Newnham
College of the University of Cambridge, which was one of two woman schools at Cambridge
University (Cambridge University). She decided to major in physical chemistry and by 1941;
Rosalind received her BA in chemistry, and was awarded a scholarship for a further year of
research and a research grant. Rosalind decided to spend about a year in the laboratory of
Ronald G. W. Norrish, who was a very well educated and respected in the field of
photochemistry (Profiles in Science).
By 1942, During WWII Rosalind made up her mind to pursue her Ph.D., rather than doing
traditional war work. Rosalind began work with the British Coal Utilisation Research
Association (BCURA) for a sum of four years. Her accomplishments yielded her with a Ph.D. in
physical chemistry from Cambridge University in 1945(Profiles in Science). During this period
she conducted numerous amounts of important research on the physical structure of coal
and carbon. She worked to elucidate the micro-structures of various coal and carbons, and
was the first to identify and measure the icro-structures (MSN Encarta). At age 26 and by the
end of her work with this assignment Rosalind had published at least seventeen articles on
the structures of coal and carbon (Gribble, Bobbi).
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
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 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,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 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 l6, l958 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 l962 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.ht
ml>.
 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
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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>.