Rosalind FranklinJuly 25th, 1920 to April 16th, 1958
Rosalind Franklin was an English scientist who contributed to the discovery of the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), a constituent of chromosomes that serves to encode genetic information. Beginning in 1951, she made careful X-ray diffraction photographs of DNA, leading her to suspect the helical form of the molecule, at least under the conditions she had used. When Watson saw her photographs, he had confirmation of the double-helix form that he and Crick then published. She never received the recognition she deserved for her independent work, but had died of cancer four years before the Nobel Prize was awarded to Crick and Watson.
Rosalind Franklin--Double Helix
I don't think that it is correct to say that Franklin never received recognition for her contribution to Watson and Crick's structure. Her contribution was recognized after Watson admitted in his book "The Double Helix" that he had used information that from her picture that had been shown to him without her knowledge. The book was published after her death. Her contribution has been recognized in a number of ways. For example, a medical school in Chicago was named after her.
ReplyDeletePhilip Harriman