A WOMAN'S BRIDGE
  • Home
  • Women, Culture & History
  • Literature, Fashion & Film
  • Variety
  • Events

Rosalind Franklin: British Molecular Biologist

1/21/2011

 
Picture
by Yoon Joung Lee

A British biophysicist, Rosalind Elsie Franklin, was born in Notting Hill, London in 1920. She is well known for her important contribution to molecular structures, X-ray diffraction, DNA, RNA and viruses.

Rosalind was the second one out of five children from an affluent and influential British-Jewish family.  She grew up in a very conservative family and her parents believed that girls need an education to get married and they should do charitable social work after marriage.  Due to such family’s expectation and belief, Rosalind had some kinds of conflict with her father as she pursued her educations.

She excelled with a great talent in Physics and Chemistry while at St. Paul’s Girls’ School in London.   She later attended Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1938 and finished her study in 1941 as she was awarded a research scholarship for her work of gas chromatography.  In 1942, she started to work on the microstructure of coke at the British Coal Utilization Research Association to work. She received her Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) degree from Cambridge in 1945.

From 1947 to 1950, she left Cambridge and she went to work with Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de L’Etat in Paris to gain experience in X-ray diffraction techniques. There, her work involved the investigation of the changes to carbon fibres when it became graphite on heating. During this time, she published several papers and it became an important part of the work on the physics and chemistry of coal, covered by a current monograph, the annual and other publications.

As a result of her contribution and expertise, she got a phone-call from John Randall at King’s College, London.  She joined their research group to study DNA fibers using X-ray crystallography.  Her responsibility there was determining the structure of DNA.

With her knowledge of physical chemistry and controlling the humidity while taking an X-ray photograph, she was able to make thinner fibres, which produce more accurate and easier to interpret X-ray patterns.  She also discovered A and B forms of DNA.  She focused mainly on A.  Although A form showed more X-ray spots, it did not show B form and the helical structure. She started to record her discovery and revised thought in her laboratory notebook.

John Randall presented her unpublished current research and data at a routine seminar. Somehow this information was leaked to Watson and Crick.  They put all the pieces of the puzzle from various sources including Franklin’s conclusions and data to complete the description of DNA’s structure. Their conclusion for the DNA structure was introduced in the journal Nature in April, 1953.  Franklin wrote a supporting article in the same edition.

Franklin kept a good friendship with both James Watson and Francis Crick until she finished her work. Her life ended by ovarian cancer in April of 1958. She was 37.  After her death, she left a reputation around the world for her great contribution to the structure of carbon compounds and of viruses.  However, what made many people sad was that she was not given credit she deserved for her works in the discovery of the structure of DNA.


    Archives

    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010

    Categories

    All
    Amelia Earhart
    American South
    Amy Beach
    Anna Nzinga
    Anna Sewell
    Anna Wintour
    Anne Bronte
    Barbra Steisand
    Baroness Blixen
    Benazir Bhutto
    Billie Jean King
    Blackfeet Nation
    Brigitte Bardot
    Bronte Sisters
    Catherine The Great
    Charlotte Bronte
    Cheng I Sao
    Civil Rights Movement
    Clara Barton
    Cleopatra
    Cristina Fernandes De Kirchner
    Dagmar Wilson
    Dido Belle
    Dilma Rousseff
    Dorothy Kamenshek
    Edith Wharton
    Eleanor Of Aquitaine
    Elouise Cobell
    Emily Bronte
    Fannie Flagg
    Frances Glessner Lee
    Frida Kahlo
    Gabby Douglas
    Geun Hye Park
    Gone With The Wind
    Hannah Snell
    Harper Lee
    Harriet Tubman
    Hatshepsut
    Heian Period
    Helen Keller
    Hillary Rodham Clinton
    Ho Ching
    Hypatia Of Alexandria
    Intro
    Irena Sendler
    Isabelle Scott
    Jamestown
    Jane Eyre
    Jane Goodall
    Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis
    Jody Williams
    Josephine Baker
    Journalism
    Joy Ogwu
    Julia Ward Howe
    Laurie Marker
    Madeleine Korbel Albright
    Margaret Bourke-White
    Margaret Mitchell
    Margaret Thatcher
    Margot Wallstrom
    Maria Otero
    Marilyn Monroe
    Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
    Mary Poppins
    Maya Angelou
    Meip Gies
    Meryl Streep
    Mother Theresa
    Murasaki Shikibu
    Nellie Bly
    Patricia Cloherty
    Pl Travers
    Pocahontas
    Rachel Carson
    Rosalind Franklin
    Rosa Parks
    Rosemary Kennedy
    Ruth Harkness
    Sally Ride
    Sheila Johnson
    Song Qingling
    Sophie Scholl
    Sylvia Plath
    The Shriver Report
    To Kill A Mockingbird
    Trudy Harsh
    Vera Wang
    Victorian Era
    Women Journalists In Pakistan
    WWII
    Yearling

    RSS Feed

  • Home
  • Women, Culture & History
  • Literature, Fashion & Film
  • Variety
  • Events