The woman who discovered DNA and the tragedy forgotten by history

Rosalind Franklin was born in London, England, in 1920, into a wealthy Jewish family. Her father was a banker, and her mother was a member of the British women's suffrage movement. From an early age, Franklin showed an interest and outstanding ability in the fields of science and mathematics.

Franklin attended St. Paul's School, an all-girls school that focused on science and mathematics. She then went on to Newnham College (Cambridge University) and received a degree in Natural Sciences in 1941.

Franklin received a scholarship to study at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'Etat in Paris, France. There, she focused her research on the physical chemistry of coal.

The woman who discovered DNA and the tragedy forgotten by history - 1 — Rosalind Franklin.

The first X-ray image of DNA

In 1946, Franklin returned to England as a research associate at King's College London, where she began research on X-rays.

Franklin quickly established herself as a skilled X-ray crystallographer and made significant contributions to the field. She studied the structures of various organic molecules, including the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus, which was the first virus to be studied using X-ray crystallography.

In 1951, Franklin was assigned to study the structure of DNA—the genetic molecule that carries the instructions for the development and function of all living organisms. The structure of DNA had been the subject of much speculation, but its exact nature remained unknown.

Franklin studied the structure of DNA with characteristic rigor and meticulous attention to detail. She spent months purifying and preparing high-quality DNA samples, which she then subjected to X-ray crystallography.

“Photo 51” was Rosalind’s X-ray image of the shape of DNA. Franklin’s efforts paid off. She obtained a high-resolution diffraction pattern that provided key information about the structure of the DNA molecule.

The photograph, nicknamed Photo 51 or Photograph n°51, laid the decisive foundation in determining the structure of DNA.

The woman who discovered DNA and the tragedy forgotten by history - 2 — Rosalind Franklin showed brilliance from an early age.

Late tribute

At that time, while two other biologists, Francis Crick and James Watson, were trying to build a theoretical model of DNA but failed, Franklin showed them her photo number 51 along with a summary of her unpublished research.

In 1953, two scientists published a paper on the double-helix structure of DNA based largely on Franklin’s data. They did not acknowledge her contributions in the paper, but only included a footnote about her “unpublished” reference.

The work earned Watson and Crick the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. Franklin was robbed of the credit.

During a business trip to the US, Franklin found herself unable to wear a dress due to a large tumor in her abdomen. She was diagnosed with two tumors and had to undergo surgery.

Even during her cancer treatment, Franklin continued to work. She and her team continued to make many contributions, most notably discovering the tobacco mosaic virus and the polio virus.

In 1958, she died at the age of 37 from bronchitis, carcinoma of the skin, and ovarian cancer. Frequent exposure to X-rays is believed to have caused these diseases.

It is only in recent years that she has been honored as a pioneering woman whose contributions transcended sexism in contemporary science.

In 2018, the Rosalind Franklin Institute for Medical Research, a UK government research institute, was named after her.

(Source: Vietnamnet/Nature/Britannica)

Useful
Emotion
Creative
Unique
Wrath

Source