WHAT CHALLENGES DO SCIENTISTS FACE?

Life story C: Rosalind Franklin

Rosalind Franklin had a pivotal role in revealing the double-helix structure of DNA but
her work was largely ignored during her lifetime.

In 1920 Franklin was born into an Anglo-Jewish banking family

in London. She has been described as ‘complex, strong-
minded and adventurous’ but also as ‘uncompromising in her
judgement of people and a perfectionist in all her
undertakings’ (Cohen).

From early childhood, Franklin showed exceptional abilities.

Supported by her mother and aunt, she was determined to
become a scientist. She wasn’t a healthy child so was sent to a girls’ boarding school by
sea. When she was eleven and her health improved she went to St Paul’s Girls’ School,
West London, which was unusual in that it taught physics and chemistry to girls. At St
Paul’s she did particularly well in science, Latin and sports. She also learned German,
and French, which was useful later in life when she worked in Paris. She topped her
classes, and received many awards.

Franklin went to Newnham College at Cambridge University and graduated in 1941.

Earning a research fellowship, she then joined the University of Cambridge physical
chemistry laboratory. She had a strong mentor in physicist Adrienne Weill, who herself
had been a student of Marie Curie, and in 1945 Franklin was awarded her PhD. After the
end of the war, in 1947, she went to Paris as a post-doctoral researcher, and became an
accomplished X-ray crystallographer.

In 1951 she returned to Britain and became a research associate at King’s College,
London where her studies would contribute to the double helix theory of DNA. Her
colleague Maurice Wilkins considered her a competitor and would finally betray her.
According to her colleague Aaron Klug, ‘She spoke her opinion firmly, and I think people
were unaccustomed to dealing with that in a woman’ (Rapoport).

As a result of unequal treatment by her male colleagues and superiors, Franklin moved
to Birkbeck College in 1953, where she led a research team.

James Watson, a competing scientist, and Wilkins copied Franklin’s research on the
double helix and published it as their own work without recognising Franklin. Watson
never admitted to the theft and together with Wilkins and Crick received the Nobel
WHAT CHALLENGES DO SCIENTISTS FACE?

Prize for Medicine in 1962 based on Franklin’s work. In his biography, Watson wrote of
Franklin that ‘she was not unattractive and might have been quite stunning had she
taken even a mild interest in clothes … Unfortunately, … there was no denying she had a
good brain’ (Rapoport).

Rosalind Franklin died in 1958 at the age of 37 of cancer. Although her work on viruses
was appreciated during her lifetime, her contributions to the discovery of the structure
of DNA were largely only recognised posthumously.

Bibliography

Cohen, Carolyn, ‘Review: Restoring a Reputation’ The Women’s Review of Books, vol.
20, no.2, Nov. 2002, pp. 8–9

Rapaport, Sarah, ‘Rosalind Franklin: Unsung Hero of the DNA Revolution’, New York
History, vol. 84, no. 3, Summer 2003, pp. 315–329