a biography of the day-rosalind franklin (biophysicist, x-ray crystallographer, DNA photographer)

[niyad]

Rosalind Franklin
Born Rosalind Elsie Franklin
25 July 1920
Notting Hill, London
Died 16 April 1958 (aged 37)
Chelsea, London
Ovarian cancer
Nationality British
Fields X-ray crystallography
Institutions British Coal Utilisation Research Association
Laboratoire central des services chimiques de l'État
King's College London
Birkbeck College, London
Alma mater Newnham College, Cambridge
Known for Fine structure of coal and graphite, Structure of DNA, structure of viruses

Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 1920 – 16 April 1958)[1] was a British biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer who made critical contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite.[2] Her DNA work achieved the most fame because DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) plays an essential role in cell metabolism and genetics, and the discovery of its structure helped her co-workers understand how genetic information is passed from parents to their offspring.

Franklin is best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA which led to the discovery of the DNA double helix. Her data, according to Francis Crick, were "the data we actually used"[3] to formulate Crick and Watson's 1953 hypothesis regarding the structure of DNA.[4] Franklin's images of X-ray diffraction confirming the helical structure of DNA were shown to Watson without her approval or knowledge. This image and her accurate interpretation of the data provided valuable insight into the DNA structure, but Franklin's scientific contributions to the discovery of the double helix are often overlooked.[5]

Unpublished drafts of her papers (written just as she was arranging to leave King's College London) show that she had independently determined the overall B-form of the DNA helix and the location of the phosphate groups on the outside of the structure. Moreover, it was a report of Franklin's that convinced Crick and Watson that the backbones had to be on the outside,[5] which was crucial since before this both they and Linus Pauling had independently generated non-illuminating models with the chains inside and the bases pointing outwards.[6] However, her work was published third, in the series of three DNA Nature articles, led by the paper of Watson and Crick which only hinted at her contribution to their hypothesis.[7]

After finishing her portion of the work on DNA, Franklin led pioneering work on the tobacco mosaic virus and the polio virus. She died in 1958 at the age of 37 of ovarian cancer.

. . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Franklin

[Jackpine Radical]

1. The woman from whom Crick & Watson stole the Nobel Prize.

[niyad]

2. exactly

[longship]

3. Not exactly true.

Rosalind Franklin died in 1958. Crick, Watson, and Wilkins won the Nobel Prize for DNA in 1962. The Nobel Prize is not given posthumously.

I agree that women scientists were often treated badly, and that Rosalind Franklin did not see the note she deserved. But that had nothing to do with not winning the Nobel Prize.

So, no matter what about photo 51, Franklin could not have received the Nobel because she wasn't alive at the time.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Sorta like attacking a rabbit with a machete, though-

(splitting a hare)

[longship]

5. Well, saying she was screwed out of the Nobel is patently false.

I am a Franklin fan, but it does her no good to just make something up like that, especially when it can so easily be debunked.

I prefer history to be factual.