Rosalind Franklin
Who was Rosalind Franklin?
British X-ray crystallographer whose Photo 51 provided crucial evidence for the double helix structure of DNA. Her work was instrumental in Watson and Crick's discovery, though she died before receiving full recognition for her contributions.
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Rosalind Franklin (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Rosalind Elsie Franklin was born on July 25, 1920, in Notting Hill, London, into a well-known Anglo-Jewish family involved in public service and intellectual pursuits. From a young age, she showed a strong talent for science, attending St Paul's Girls' School, where she excelled in physics and chemistry. She studied natural sciences at Newnham College, Cambridge, graduating in 1941. Initially, she pursued a PhD in physical chemistry under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish but, dissatisfied with his lack of feedback, she left to join the British Coal Utilisation Research Association in 1942. Her work there on coal's microstructure and porosity laid the groundwork for future research, earning her a PhD from Cambridge in 1945 and establishing her as a thorough experimentalist.
In 1947, Franklin moved to Paris for a postdoctoral position with Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État. There she honed her skills in X-ray crystallography, a technique she would expertly use throughout her career. By the time she returned to England in 1951 for a research associate role at King's College London, she was one of the top X-ray crystallographers in Europe. At King's College, she studied DNA with X-ray diffraction methods, producing Photo 51 with her graduate student Raymond Gosling—an exceptionally clear image of the B-form of DNA. This image, along with her accurate measurements of the molecule's dimensions and water content, provided vital insights into DNA's helical structure.
The circumstances surrounding the use of Franklin's data are among the most contentious in science history. Without her knowledge or approval, her colleague Maurice Wilkins showed Photo 51 to James Watson in January 1953. Watson and Francis Crick also received a detailed report she had prepared for the Medical Research Council. With this information, Watson and Crick published their DNA double helix model in Nature in April 1953. Franklin published her supporting crystallographic data in the same issue, though her role in developing the model went unrecognized in that pivotal paper. In 1962, Watson, Crick, and Wilkins won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery. Nobel Prizes are not awarded posthumously, and Franklin had died four years earlier.
Due to ongoing disputes with her director John Randall and challenging interactions with Wilkins, Franklin moved to Birkbeck College London in 1953, working under the crystallographer John Desmond Bernal. At Birkbeck, she conducted detailed X-ray analyses of tobacco mosaic virus and other plant viruses, greatly enhancing the understanding of viral structure. Diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1956, likely from her extensive exposure to X-ray radiation, she continued her work with remarkable commitment despite her illness. Rosalind Franklin passed away on April 16, 1958, at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, at the age of 37, leaving a legacy that only received widespread recognition decades later.
Before Fame
Rosalind Franklin was born into a wealthy and intellectually engaged Jewish family in London. Her father, Ellis Franklin, was a banker who also taught at the Working Men's College, and the family valued education and civic responsibility. Franklin attended Norland Place School in her early childhood and went on to St Paul's Girls' School, where she was one of the few students who took physics and chemistry seriously at a time when girls' education rarely focused on science. By fifteen, she knew she wanted to be a scientist, a decision her father initially discouraged but later supported.
Franklin enrolled at Newnham College, Cambridge in 1938, joining a university that admitted women to its colleges but didn't grant them full degrees until 1948. She studied natural sciences, focusing on chemistry, and graduated in 1941. Her experiences in wartime Britain influenced her early career, leading her away from academic frustration to applied industrial research and eventually into the precision-driven world of X-ray crystallography in postwar Paris, where she honed the technical skills that would define her scientific career.
Key Achievements
- Produced Photo 51, the X-ray diffraction image of B-form DNA that provided crucial structural evidence for the double helix model
- Conducted groundbreaking research on coal microstructure and porosity, earning a Cambridge PhD in 1945 and contributing to materials science
- Performed detailed X-ray crystallographic analyses of tobacco mosaic virus and other plant viruses at Birkbeck College, advancing virology significantly
- Established precise measurements of DNA's molecular dimensions, including its water content and unit cell parameters, which were essential to determining its structure
- Received posthumous recognition through the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize in 2008 and has her name inscribed among 72 scientists on the Eiffel Tower
Did You Know?
- 01.Photo 51, the X-ray diffraction image central to the discovery of DNA's structure, was actually taken by Franklin's graduate student Raymond Gosling, but Franklin directed the work and recognized its significance immediately upon viewing it.
- 02.Franklin spent time in Paris from 1947 to 1951 and became fluent in French; colleagues there later described her Paris years as the happiest of her scientific life, in stark contrast to her tense experience at King's College London.
- 03.James Watson reportedly described Franklin dismissively in his memoir 'The Double Helix' as 'Rosy,' a nickname she never used and disliked; the book's portrayal of her prompted widespread criticism from the scientific community.
- 04.Franklin's name is among the 72 scientists engraved on the Eiffel Tower in Paris, a recognition of her contributions to science that predates much of the public reassessment of her role in the DNA story.
- 05.The Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, one of the most distinguished awards in biological sciences, was awarded posthumously in 2008 to Franklin alongside Watson, Crick, and Wilkins, formally acknowledging her role in the DNA discovery more than fifty years after her death.
Family & Personal Life
Awards & Honors
| Award | Year | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize | 2008 | — |
| 72 scientist women names on the Eiffel tower | — | — |