James Watson Honor Essay

The discovery of deoxyribonucleic acid, more commonly known as DNA, has been the foundation for much scientific work. This fundamental discovery was credited to James Watson and Francis Crick. Many people believe that another person, Rosalind Franklin, also played a large role in the research. How much did she contribute to the discovery? Why is her name left unrecognized? This paper will discuss her part in the search and whether her name should appear next to Watson's and Crick's as the co-discoverer of DNA.

I believe that Rosalind Franklin deserved more credit than she got foe her X-ray crystallography. Watson took photo 51 from her file without ther knowledge which showed that DNA has a definite pattern and two strands. Watson and Crick used the photo for their own personal gain instead of giving Rosalind any credit they saw Rosalind as below them so they had no issue stealing her idea.

2. What role did James Watson & Francis Crick play in our understanding of DNA’s structure? They discovered the 3D structure.

James Watson is an extremely famous molecular biologist, zoologist and geneticist. He is best known for his co- discovery of DNA with fellow scientists Rosalind Franklin and Francis Crick.

TUCSON, Ariz. – Instruments are the first thing to greet a person entering the room. A piano sits by the window, a saxophone close by – and Brice Winston, a jazz musician and educator, sits on the couch, a painting as soulful as the music he plays hanging on the wall behind him.

Webster’s says that the word honor means, “Esteem due or paid to worth ; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence.” To me honor means someone is being truthful, respectful, hardworking, and someone with high morals. I have chosen to write about Bill Nye a famous scientist, and to see if he is also an honorable one.

Defined by the dictionary, honor is to have high respect and esteem. My definition of honor is to discover the unknown and not be afraid to share these discoveries. Johannes Kepler was a scientist who discovered multiple new things and shared them with others, I consider him an honorable scientist. Johannes Kepler was the first to correctly explain planetary motions, technically becoming the founder of celestial mechanics and the first “natural laws” (Kepler: Johannes Kepler). Kepler did not call these discoveries “laws”, as later it would be that Isaac Newton would derive them(Johannes Kepler (German astronomer).

Using Rosalind Franklin’s photo, Watson, Crick, and Wilkins figured out the correct structure of DNA, which they published in the paper. Franklin also published an article in the same issue, providing further details on DNA's structure but he stole it. Franklin's image of the DNA molecule was the reason Watson, Crick, and Wilkins were

Rosalind Franklin, a name mostly forgotten in textbooks, majorly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s helical structure. Unfortunately for her, her contribution was made during a time when feelings of misogyny and antisemitism were prevalent. As a result, she never received the recognition she deserved from her male competitors. Photographs that she had taken and reports that she had written were unknowingly given to rival scientists, Francis Watson and James Crick, Photograph 51 being the most prominent among them. This led them to determining DNA’s structure and acquiring international fame. Had her information not been leaked, Rosalind would’ve had a very good chance of discovering it first. Franklin changed the world of science with Photograph

In 1951, she decided to take some pictures of X-Ray diffraction DNA, which showed a helical appearance. The photographs that she took evidently showed that DNA was a double helix. This did not match the theory that the formation was made of three chains. Other scientists such as James Watson and Francis Crick contributed to the findings as well. Soon after Franklin made her discovery, Watson and Crick used her data and information to benefit themselves, by producing an accurate model, which they could not do before. Shortly after Rosalind Franklin passed away, Watson and Crick were awarded the Nobel Prize for their discoveries. There are many people that believe Rosalind did not receive the amount of credit that she deserved, and that Watson and Crick got unearned credit. In 1953, they published “their”

It is constantly recurring throughout his autobiographical statements as he recounts how each small discovery by the scientists he encounters help find a simple explanation, model for the structure of DNA from the complex ideas and evidence they began with. It is seen that each scientist had something to contribute whether it was a discovery or knowledge in their area of expertise that was beneficial in the discovery of the DNA structure. For example, when Crick saw Crystallographer V.Vand’s discovery of “a theory for the diffraction of x-rays by helical molecules” though he thought the theory was invalid it peaked his curiosity in finding an accurate theory. Furthermore, in Watson’s interview it is seen that when it comes to science he thinks that if there is scientific knowledge that will affect human beings’, scientists, the scientific community should work to ensure that they understand the knowledge and

Maurice Wilkins deserves the most credit for the discovery of DNA’s structure because without his research, it could’ve been years before DNA’s structure was truly understood. This is due to the fact that Wilkins was the first person to ever produce a photograph of DNA. He did this by using X-Ray Crystallography. Now, many will say that Rosalind Franklin provided a clearer, better picture, known a Photograph 51, than Wilkins ever did which ultimately lead to the discovery of DNA’s structure. However, she worked off Wilkins idea of using X-Ray Crystallography and would therefore never have produced the picture of DNA without his work. Others will say that Watson and Crick are the rightful heirs to the title of discovering DNA’s structure. However,

1) Rosalind Franklin put forth a huge contribution towards the discovery of DNA. She was basically the backbone of the whole discovery, she (along with Maurice Wilkins) produced an x-ray crystallised photo of a DNA fibre. Her photo clearly showed that DNA was a double stranded molecule (Maddox, 2003) and this fuelled the ideas that Crick and Watson had when building their model. Watson and Crick together also played a significant role in the discovery because they are the ones who came to a final conclusion after building their model of the DNA fibre. After receiving information from Franklin’s work they were able to conclude that adenine bonded to thymine and cytosine to guanine and Crick figured out hat one strand was a template for the second one.

Rosalind Franklin’s work on DNA was crucial in discovering the composition of the human body as a whole. Her x-ray photo revealed a double helix structure and she also discovered the A and B form of DNA. She worked through the adversity of being a female in a predominately male dominated realm and made remarkable findings that were eventually stolen. She adapted to a new lab with antiquated technology. Before this discovery, the structure of DNA was thought to be simple. Scientist, Watson and Crick, started with the wrong structure of DNA from a misinterpretation of notes from one of Franklin’s presentations. Unlike Watson and Crick, Rosalind Franklin could explain DNA and how it worked.

Thesis Statement: Despite facing difficult circumstances on the journey to become a scientist and actually being a scientist, Rosalind Franklin made advances in x-ray diffraction techniques; she produced extremely fine beam of x-rays, allowing her to extract finer DNA fibers than ever seen before, allowing her to discover crucial keys to DNA 's structure.