Gratitude is not that common, and many who make a difference are never noticed. Take Rosalind Franklin, a scientist who was instrumental in the revolutionary discovery of DNA’s structure. She received no credit, and died young in obscurity. Below are some interesting facts about that scientist who deserved better.
Rosalind Franklin’s Instrumental Role in DNA Research
Many today know that the double-helix represents DNA, even if we don’t quite know how DNA works. Until 1953, however, DNA’s structure was a mystery. To the extent that most people today associate DNA with any names, the ones that usually come to mind are James Watson and Francis Crick, who first published a paper that modeled the DNA double-helix structure. Forgotten and for far too long ignored is a third name: Rosalind Franklin (1920 – 1958), who many believe had her data stolen by Watson and Crick.
Franklin, a British scientist who specialized in chemistry and X-ray crystallography, started her research on DNA in 1951. She discovered both its density, and that it existed in a helical structure. Franklin eventually made X-rays that revealed DNA’s double helix structure. She never got credit for that. A photo of Franklin’s work was shown to Watson and Crick, without her knowledge. In 1953, they announced that they had discovered DNA’s double-helix structure in a paper that birthed modern molecular biology.
Watson and Crick eventually conceded that their discovery would not have been possible without Franklin’s data. However, they did not bother to put her name on their paper. Franklin’s contribution to one of science’s greatest discoveries was not acknowledged during her lifetime, and remained largely forgotten for decades. She passed away from ovarian cancer in 1958, at age thirty seven. As to Watson and Crick, they won a Nobel Prize in 1962 “for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material”.
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Some Sources & Further Reading
National Library of Medicine – The Discovery of the Double Helix, 1951-1953
