Rosalind Franklin's The Double Helix

The pictures were shown to James Watson and Francis Crick by Maurice Wilkins. They were then able to confirm their theory about the 3D structure of DNA. In 1962, they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for solving the structure of DNA. The Nobel committee could not award it to Franklin because the Nobel prize could only be shared by three people and also because she was already dead (DNA from the Beginning, 2011)

As a fellow individual, I have read both autobiographies of Mary Rowlandson and Benjamin Franklin. Both of their works were very distinctive from one another and shared parts of their life. However, there were several cracks and crannies, or differences in their memoirs. A belief of mine always said, “Don’t discriminate, let’s procreate!” In other words, each and every person has their own story to tell, have an open mind and hear each other out. As I can imagine, blasting into the past from the 16th century to the 17th century, was a whole another time and era, which can be a challenge for a 90’s kids like me. Nonetheless, I digress, I will try my very hardest to share what the critics and spectators say about their works. Hopefully, you will be enlightened and turn the other cheek.

Franklin came very close to realizing this structure. In fact, she had already started to document her work, convinced of the structure; however, there were two key things that she missed. These two things were things she failed to see in her own data, but that Watson and Crick picked up on. The first of the two, which Crick noticed, was the fact that the two strands of DNA run in opposite direction of one another: One goes up and the other goes down. Franklin would have put both strands running in the same direction. Crick picked up on this point from a technical similarity in DNA and the hemoglobin that he was working on [Judson, 1986]. The second point, which Watson discovered, was the unique pairing of the bases in DNA. They are set up such that each strand is complementary to the other and if the two

Nonetheless, today, she is more and more acknowledged – especially due to the recent rise of passionate feminists. Also, historian’s and archivist’s work over the past few decades has promoted Franklin and she has become more widely known. Numerous books and articles have been written about Franklin and the lack of credit she has received. In 2004, a university in Illinois, US, was renamed to Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in dedication to Rosalind Franklin. The university states “One thing is certain - she died without ever knowing the true magnitude of her contribution to the science of life”. Finally, one could say Watson actually did Franklin a favour, by portraying her almost villain-like in his book. Had he not done this, she might had been forgotten

Over the course of the modern age, the human body was still a mystery waiting to be solved. The body contains secrets one can only hope to discover. Over the twentieth century, scientists tried to understand one of the most complex concepts in the biological field. DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) was at the forefront of research. Several theories claimed to have solved the structural concept of DNA. However, it was not until Francis Crick and James D. Watson discovered the true structure, the double helix. However, many potential models of DNA had passed through the biology field until eventual lose of credibility. The past models would contain a fixed detail that would make the entire concept invalid. In James D. Watson book, The Double Helix, he illustrates his path amid incorrect theories until he reaches the model that is taught around the world today.

1. What role did Rosalyn Franklin play in our understanding of DNA’s structure? She discovered the double-helix position of the 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.

From the 1940s to the 1950s, there was a scientific discovery that scientist all over the world were trying to figure out. Rosalind Franklin, a women in science, was competing to discover the structure of DNA. During her career she had worked in England and France, facing many difficulties because she was a women in science. She had more difficulties in England because the gender gap was much larger than in France where she was looked at more of an equal than a lesser. During Rosalind Franklin's entire career she was always competing with scientist all over the world, but sometimes she didn't know that she was competing or racing to discover something before someone else because she was a woman in science, where gender had played a role on the information they receive even though science is supposed to be an open communal,

(1): Rosalind Franklin feels isolated early on when she arrived at Kings and began to set up her equipment. Maurice Wilkins decides to check on Rosalind, “Well, we like to keep in touch. [pause, Franklin looks away]. Just as you wish. Keep me posted [Franklin tilts her head suddenly, displeased].”(Scene 3). Rosalind is displeased after Wilkins wants to know when she makes progress with her work. This could mean that Rosalind is afraid that King's College is using her just to gather more information about DNA. Another scene where Rosalind feels unequal when compared to others in the film is when her research assistant Raymond Gosling shows Rosalind’s work to Maurice Wilkins. “I wonder why we bother to do experiments. [Clearly upset.]”(Scene

Rosalind Elsie Franklin was born on July 25, 1920 in Notting Hill, London. She went to school at St. Paul’s Girls School in London before going to the University of Cambridge to get a degree in chemistry. After graduation, she stayed at the University studying gas-phase chromatology. She is known for studying DNA structure, virus structure, and the structure of graphite and coal. Franklin’s most known scientific accomplishment is helping to discover DNA’s helical structure.

Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton faced challenges in their respective research as a result of religious and cultural beliefs of the time influencing their work, but there is another individual who faced different issues that influenced their research. It is fairly well known that James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA, but it is not as commonly known that an individual by the name of Rosalind Franklin also played a key role in this research. Rosalind Franklin had been trying to uncover the secrets of DNA during the same time as Watson and Crick and she actually quite close to figuring it out. At the time she didn’t quite realize what she had and if she did than it would have most certainly been her who would have been credited with the research. It wasn’t until Watson and Crick were shown Franklin’s research that they were able to pull ahead and fully figure out the structure of DNA. It was said that “while Rosalind’s work was fundamental to the discovery, she had not been consulted on its use”, meaning that she did a large part of the work and someone else was given the credit (Maddox). Showing them the progress made by Franklin was done without their permission. Franklin contributed a large part to the research done on the structure of DNA and it wasn’t until much later she was given credit for it. Why Rosalind Franklin was not given credit for the amount of work she contributed in the research of DNA is not completely clear, but it may have been caused by cultural issues she faced

“This is the best proof that DNA exists in a double helix structure, though it only shows it qualitatively.” I responded. It had long been a mystery at how DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, was regarded, and how it was able to perform actions, like translating, replicating, etc. on a large scale with minimal error. This was just the spark that we needed to finally comprehend the structure of DNA. Not long after, Crick and I

In 1953 four scientists: James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin completed a DNA model which they created using observed X-ray diffraction patterns. This model showed how the structure of DNA was able to transmit genetic information from parents to their offspring.

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.

The discovery of the Alpha helix came up when, James Watson was one day alerted that Linus Pauling had partially solved the structure of proteins. Following up on this James found out that, in on of Pauling’s talks he revealed the alpha-helix model. This was a large event in the race for DNA because Linus was the first person to propose something solidly correct about DNA structure. This new event however, did not provide a lot of progress for James’s work because of at the time how he could not tell if this suggestion was correct or not. Later on this information did help them because they took on the helical shape with the addition of x-ray evidence.