Rosalind Franklin: A Life from Beginning to End (Biographies of Women in History); by Hourly History.

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Rosalind Franklin: A Life

from Beginning to End

(Biographies of Women in History)

Hourly History.

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Very worth reading, especially because she deserves to be known for her work - and it's only misogyny, perhaps added to the then strong antisemitism, that allowed her name to remain a secret of scientific community.

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"“She was a pretty tough person: single-minded, spoke what she believed and could, in fact, be quite fierce. And if she had been a man, it would have gone totally unremarked.”

"—Aaron Klug, on Rosalind Franklin"

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"Rosalind Franklin was, for quite a few years, what can only be called an overlooked genius. Although she was not fully credited for the feat, it was her work that led to major breakthroughs in our understanding of DNA. In fact, she took the first X-ray photo of DNA in all of its double helix glory.

"Franklin’s work would lead to major discoveries a little further down the road, but by the time her former colleagues were being showered with accolades for results they made at least partially based on her findings, Rosalind would not even be around to see it. Sadly enough, it’s believed that her use of dangerous X-ray equipment gave her terminal cancer, cutting her life short. She passed away at just 37 years of age, leaving much of her latent potential unfulfilled.

"Rosalind Franklin, who helped to pave the way to a better understanding of DNA, has only recently received widespread attention for her achievements. ... "

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"Rosalind Elsie Franklin was born on July 25, 1920, in London, England. The world was just 20 years into the twentieth century at the time of her birth, yet several momentous events had already made their mark. The industrialized nations of the planet had made their way through both the First World War and the 1918 pandemic known as the Spanish Flu. It would be the fallout of the latter that would come to shape much of Franklin’s later viral research. Interestingly enough, her middle name, Elsie, is actually in honor of a relative who perished in the 1918 flu.

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"Rosalind’s marks were good from the very beginning, and the girl excelled so rapidly that her Aunt Mamie famously remarked, “Rosalind is alarmingly clever.” This statement has been interpreted as both a compliment and a subtle warning since, in those days, girls who made high marks in school were often frowned upon as being too “bookish.” The world of academia and science was typically reserved for the men of society, and it was often felt to be “alarming” when an intelligent girl like Rosalind tried to gain entry into these worlds. Still, Rosalind would attempt to break down these barriers for good.

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"“You frequently state, and in your letter you imply, that I have developed a completely one-sided outlook and look at everything in terms of science. Obviously my method of thought and reasoning is influenced by a scientific training—if that were not so my scientific training will have been a waste and a failure.”

"—Rosalind Franklin"

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"As she grew older, Rosalind continued to show much promise, and by the time that she was 11 years old, she was enrolled in St. Paul’s Girls’ School in Hammersmith, located on London’s west side. The school was in rare form in these days, since it was a girls’ school which put a heavy emphasis on science. Not only did the school encourage young girls like Rosalind to pursue classes in science, but it also encouraged them to develop a philosophy that women could do much more than fulfilling the traditional role society had given them. Even at age 11, Rosalind took this mission seriously, and every day she proudly donned her school uniform and boarded a bus to take her to her classes.

"Here, Rosalind was able to embrace her love of science, and she received several high marks in her school’s curriculum. She did so well, in fact, that she received awards for her efforts on multiple occasions. The awards weren’t anything too grandiose; on one occasion, for example, she was simply allowed to pick a book. Still, the book that she happened to pick for her arbitrary prize would prove to have a profound effect on her life.

"That book was called New Pathways in Science and was written by British physicist Arthur Eddington. Among other things, the book spoke at length about various theories concerning subatomic structures. In addition to this, the book delved into what was at the time the fairly new field of quantum mechanics. This was quite an impressive book for young Rosalind to cut her teeth on, and this foundation of knowledge would prove valuable for her future career.

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"Besides science, some of Franklin’s main coursework included studies in geography, math, Latin, and French—the latter of which she would become quite good at and use in her extensive travels later in life.

"The early 1930s was a happy time for young Rosalind, but events in continental Europe would soon cast a shadow over her carefree youth. In 1933, a man named Adolf Hitler rose to power in the European nation of Germany. Hitler pledged to unify German society, which had been fractured ever since the resolution of World War I. However, his promise to build a greater Germany purposefully excluded Jewish Germans who Hitler and his Nazi compatriots deemed outsiders. As rampant anti-Semitism erupted under Hitler’s leadership, many Jews began to seek refuge abroad."

Where does the author get that "Hitler pledged to unify German society, which had been fractured ever since the resolution of World War I" bit? If there was any 'fracture' of the German society it was, as all over Europe, along lines of castes of West, from royalty to aristocracy to landed gentry to tradespeople to peasants, and only a leftist ideology frowned on this.

At that, Hitler's nazi ideology did flatten Germany’s caste structure, but only by the two step dance of bringing it to destruction after an almost successful attempt to raise it to colonial master status within Europe, with other nationalities meant to serve as slaves.

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"Accepted by Cambridge, Rosalind now had the choice of attending either Girton College or Newnham College since these were the two women’s colleges that Cambridge offered at the time. She decided to go with Newnham. Rosalind was very excited about the opportunity to continue her education, but she didn’t always have support back home. Although her father was proud of her achievement, he initially demurred at the prospect of his daughter going away to Newnham. He had hoped that she would stay home and play a more traditional role as a housewife and perhaps in helping out with the community. He simply did not want his daughter to invest her future in academia.

"Rosalind was not willing to be pressured by the social conventions of her day, however, and let her parents know that her mind was made up. Knowing that they could not convince her otherwise, her parents eventually did come around to support her. With her personal effects in order, she then left home to attend Newnham in 1938.

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"Cambridge’s Newnham College was a great school known for both its well-equipped labs and the special expertise of its instructors. Yet as forward-thinking and cutting edge as the school was, Rosalind still had to face the institutional limitations that Cambridge placed upon female students at the time. In those days, Cambridge did not consider women to be full members of the university. The stipulation meant that come graduation day, full degrees would only be awarded to male students.

"Nevertheless, despite the adversity and systemic exclusion that Rosalind faced, she worked hard and was determined to make the best of it. Early on in her academic career, she made the study of physical chemistry her main emphasis. This was the field in which research was done on molecular and atomic structures.

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"It was in the lab studying chemistry that Rosalind first became acquainted with the esteemed spectroscopist Bill Price. Price was serving as a laboratory demonstrator at the time and would remain a lifelong colleague.

"Rosalind very much enjoyed the rigors of this new and exciting field, and she always kept her books on the subject close by. When she could manage to peel herself away from her study, she could be found enjoying a wide array of sports, including tennis, biking, and even field hockey. She also made a good friend in the form of one Adrienne Weill, who transferred to Cambridge from France after the Nazi invasion of 1940.

"Adrienne was herself an accomplished academic and skilled researcher who had specialized in the chemical makeup of metal. Rosalind found a kindred spirit in Adrienne, and from her example, she would learn much. Along with a few lessons in French, Adrienne’s rich experience would help to encourage Rosalind that she too could succeed in the field.

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"Rosalind would continue to excel at Newnham and ultimately graduated from the school in 1941. Even though women were not yet being given bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Rosalind received second-class honors due to her high examination scores, and this distinction would serve as an alternative qualification when it came to pursuing work.

"Upon her graduation, she would eventually gain an exciting new job as a researcher. Here, she would finally be able to put her studies to practice, but it wouldn’t be long before a contentious chemist and a world war would manage to get in the way."

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"“In my view, all that is necessary for faith is the belief that by doing our best we shall come nearer to success and that success in our aims (the improvement of the lot of mankind, present and future) is worth attaining. I maintain that faith in this world is perfectly possible without faith in another world.”

"—Rosalind Franklin"

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"Upon her graduation from college, Rosalind was given a fellowship through Newnham, thanks to which she started to conduct research under the guidance of chemist Ronald George Wreyford Norrish.

"Norrish was an expert on spectrometry, and at the time, he was knee-deep in research into how light can affect chemistry. He documented how molecular structures would become altered when exposed to different lighting. In his efforts to figure out how all this worked, Norrish contrived a contraption that would emit bursts of light onto various substances. After utilizing this light, Norrish would then examine the spectrology of the targeted object in order to determine how its chemical makeup had been altered.

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"Franklin and Norrish developed a tumultuous working relationship, however, and during her first year, Rosalind struggled to get on the same page with her increasingly erratic instructor. She found that Norrish insisted that those around him agree with his findings and that he refused to listen to any other point of view. Apparently, he was not only difficult—the man was an overbearing despot when it came to those he worked with in the lab. As Rosalind explained in a letter she had written to her family at the time, “He’s the sort of person who likes you alright as long as you say yes to everything he says, and agree with all his misstatements, and I always refuse to do that.”

"Difficulty with Norrish would ultimately have Rosalind resigning from her post and opting to enlist as a researcher for the British Coal Utilization Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. At that point, World War II was really heating up, and BCURA was on the front line of research when it came to the capacity of coal to absorb gas. This was considered important in the development of new gas masks that could benefit from coal’s special gas absorbent ability. It was in this research that Rosalind really put her skills as a chemist to the test as she learned about the exact structure of the carbon molecules of coal and what reactions it has under various degrees of pressure and temperature.

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"Rosalind would end up publishing five different academic research papers which covered all of her experimentation while working for BCURA. One of the main focuses of her papers was the porosity of coal using helium to determine density. Rosalind’s experimentation with coal established that the porous constriction of coal was directly linked to the permeability of the porous space. This discovery enabled Rosalind to categorize types of coal and then make predictions on how well various types of coal might work as it pertained to being used as an energy resource or in military equipment.

"In particular, Franklin focused in on something known as micropores, which were structures so tiny that they were invisible even at the microscopic level. In her research, Rosalind would make use of an electron microscope, which was an invention that had only just come out about a decade prior in 1931.

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"It was through this research that Rosalind made a breakthrough discovery when she determined that the microstructures of coal could allow certain molecules, like helium, to pass through, whereas other molecular structures that were more complicated in their makeup, such as benzene or hexane, were unable to do so. She could see that the micropores operated like a kind of sieve, allowing certain smaller molecules to pass and link up with the carbon atoms of coal.

"Furthermore, Franklin found that the more the temperature of coal was increased, the more constricted these microstructures would become. If coal were heated up to over 1,000 degrees for example, at that point even helium molecules would be unable to pass through. Rosalind Franklin was the very first researcher to make this connection and then go on to make precise measurements of these microstructures. Her research rendered to the world a very real—if unexpected—breakthrough in the field, and her findings would contribute to the development of carbon fiber, which would eventually be used in automobiles and aircrafts."

Also, eventually, in development of bulletproof clothing?

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"Along with her academic research into coal, Rosalind also aided the war effort by volunteering as an air raid warden. Germany had been regularly bombing Britain at the time, and Rosalind’s role had her making patrols to ensure that people were staying safe during the raids. Part of her job as an air raid warden entailed making sure that the windows of buildings were not improperly illuminated in violation of wartime protocol, which had been enacted to make it more difficult for German warplanes to drop bombs on British targets.

"Although Cambridge under normal standards of war shouldn’t have been targeted by enemy bombs, the Nazis were not ones to abide by most military norms. Cambridge was indeed in the crosshairs on more than one occasion, and so air raid preparedness had become an important part of life at the institution.

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"By the war’s end in 1945, Rosalind’s work would earn her a Ph.D. from Cambridge. It was around this time that Rosalind reached out to her old friend Adrienne Weill and asked her to keep her informed for any positions that might need to be filled by “a physical chemist who knows very little physical chemistry, but quite a lot about the holes in coal.” After the war’s conclusion, Adrienne had returned to her native France, where this former refugee was able to set up shop. As she made her way through her old academic circles in France, Adrienne would indeed keep her friend’s request in mind.

"In the fall of 1946, she would come through for Rosalind in a big way when she brought her into contact with Marcel Mathieu, the director of the French National Centre for Scientific Research. Marcel would then refer Rosalind to a certain Jacques Mering, who worked out of the Central State Laboratory for Chemical Services in Paris. Under his leadership, Franklin would be made a postdoctoral researcher at the facility. Her experience in the field and the fact that she was proficient in the French language were both great assets for the position."

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"“We wish to discuss a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid. (D.N.A.). This structure has novel features which are of considerable biologic interest.”

"—Rosalind Franklin"

Goosebumps!

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"Franklin began work at the French research facility known as the Central State Laboratory for Chemical Services in early 1947. The lab had previously been used to make wartime materials such as gunpowder, but now that the war was over, it had been transformed into a research hub for commercial manufacturers.

"After getting hired to work for this Parisian lab, Rosalind had to scramble to find a place to live. She ended up getting shelter by way of a cheap apartment situated on top of a local home owned by a French widow. The place was suitable, but the owner was rather stern and forced the tenants to live by the guidelines she imposed—guidelines which, among other things, stipulated that tenants could only utilize the communal bathtub once a week and that all must be quiet after 9:30 in the evening. Such arrangements might have been terrible for a budding musician, but since much of Rosalind’s work was done in quiet solitude, the 9:30 cut-off suited her just fine.

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"It was also helpful that these living arrangements were just across the river from her new place of employment. Rosalind would ride her bike to cross the Seine River every day to get to work, where she soon became well acquainted with her boss, Jacques Mering, who was a leader in X-ray crystallography.

"Mering made use of something called X-ray diffraction in order to gain a better understanding of amorphous substances such as rayon. Rosalind applied what she already knew about coal and carbon and followed Mering’s lead. This new and exciting field was where Rosalind would soon make her mark. Sadly, it would also be the kind of work that would end up harming her health since X-rays can be deadly, and in those days, safety wasn’t always at the forefront of research.

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"Rosalind put in long hours for low pay, but as long as she had a passion for what she did, she didn’t mind. Along with the hard work that Franklin put in at the lab, she also developed a devoted circle of friends with whom she would socialize and, on occasion, go hiking in the mountains, a favorite pastime of hers. She summed up her life at the time in a letter she penned for family back home, in which she remarked, “I have good friends—and I find infinite kindness and good will among the people I work with. All that is far more important than a larger meat ration or more frequent baths.”

"And so, Franklin’s life went, with her routine uninterrupted until 1950 when she put in an application for a research fellowship at King’s College in London. She was accepted and was offered a three-year fellowship. This prompted her to return home to England in January of 1951. Glad to be out of her old, cramped apartment in France, Rosalind moved into her own place in London.

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"Upon her arrival at King’s College, Franklin was given the task of studying the subtle changes found in protein solutions. This was a new angle for Rosalind since, previously, she was in the realm of physical chemistry, whereas now she would be working with biological chemistry.

"Yet almost as soon as she got to the lab, she learned that her duties had been altered. The school had just received a specially prepared nucleic gel, and it was tasked to Rosalind to utilize her experience with X-rays to examine the very composition of DNA. The discovery of DNA was in itself a major achievement since it revealed the building blocks of all genetic material. All biological matter—viruses, plants, animals, and humans—have DNA.

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"Rosalind was now part of the exciting research needed to crack open DNA itself—work which entailed working with DNA fibers. Her go-to guide at the lab was a man named John Randall. Randall was in charge of King’s laboratory, and he was the walking encyclopedia for anything that Franklin wanted to know.

"At King’s College, Rosalind was able to use the latest in equipment and was allowed to order more if anything broke or if she felt additional gear was necessary. Appreciating this generosity, she immediately sent out a request to order a fine-focus X-ray tube. This, along with a micro camera requested by one of her colleagues in the lab, she would use to better refine her understanding of the structure of DNA. She was given the liberty of using her own discretion when it came to experimentation, the results of which would end up in countless articles and academic papers.

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"Rosalind was indeed given a decisive role, yet when she first met one of her main colleagues, Maurice Wilkins, he failed to recognize her prominence and thought she had been assigned to him as a lab assistant. Franklin, of course, let him realize pretty quickly that he was mistaken. On the contrary, she had even been given her own personal assistant, a student at the college by the name of Raymond Gosling.

"Gosling was assigned to Franklin by Randall, and from then on, Rosalind would become what Gosling later described as his “day-to-day supervisor” in the lab. Contrary to some of her other colleagues, Raymond Gosling would become quite fond of Rosalind, and by all accounts, the two hit it off well. They worked well together in the lab, and Gosling even occasionally saw Rosalind outside of work.

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"“The results suggest a helical structure, which must be very closely packed, containing probably 2, 3, or 4 coaxial nucleic acid chains per helical unit and having the phosphate groups near the outside.”

"—Rosalind Franklin"

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"As 1951 came to a close, Rosalind Franklin and her colleague Maurice Wilkins found themselves increasingly at odds with each other. They were competitors to be sure, but they also simply had two very different personalities. Where Wilkins was shy and introspective, Franklin was headstrong and quick to speak her mind. Not only that, but she actually enjoyed arguing and debating results.

"For Wilkins, it was one thing to disagree, but he was not prepared to handle a partner who would so vociferously argue and put down his work. Randall, however, must have seen in Franklin a woman who would stop at nothing to get the best results, and although she could be a little uncouth when she debated the merits of the findings, he knew that she was one who would keep pushing the envelope as far as she possibly could.

"Wilkins, on the other hand, did not trust Franklin’s qualifications. Some have speculated that he looked down upon her because she was a woman, but it seems that his main concern was the fact that the main bulk of her previous work had been with coal rather than living organisms. Wilkins believed that this put her back, as it pertained to DNA, the genetic sequence of life itself.

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"In any case, Rosalind Franklin would prove herself to be a quick study. She and her assistant Gosling worked out an advanced method where they utilized X-rays and cameras to record pictures of DNA. Franklin used her knowledge of X-ray diffraction to bring forth 3D images of molecular structures. From these, it was deduced that the molecules came in the form of a kind of winding ladder, or more scientifically, it appeared to be a helix. Still, the exact shape had yet to have been confirmed.

"Around this time, the researchers at King’s determined that DNA was crystalline in its makeup and had a repeating pattern. It was believed that if the right mathematical formula could be made, the helix shape of DNA might finally be confirmed. It was during this latest round of experimentation that Rosalind found out that there are two basic arrangements of DNA, which she termed to be the A and B forms. She found out that it was when conditions were dry enough that DNA became a hardened crystalline structure, which she called the A form. This discovery alone was a major milestone in DNA research.

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"Franklin found that when the temperature was raised and moisture began to appear, DNA became what she termed the B form. Rather than becoming crystallized, B strands of DNA established a bond with molecules of water. This was a real breakthrough moment for Rosalind because, as it turned out, this water-bonded B form of DNA was a whole lot easier to take pictures of than the hard, dried-out A form.

"It would be the B form of DNA that would finally render the confirmation that Rosalind Franklin and her colleagues had so eagerly sought. Franklin and her assistant Gosling took several images, but many of them were still a little hard to decipher. Gosling, in particular, seemed to have trouble balancing the humidity levels that were present on the samples.

"As Gosling struggled to get the conditions just right, Rosalind decided to pump hydrogen gas through a salt solution in an effort to keep the DNA fibers hydrated. After finetuning the salt concentration and the humidity levels, Franklin and Gosling allowed an X-ray beam to shine on the DNA fibers for more than 60 hours. With the humidity levels just right, they were able to take the first clear image of DNA. Rosalind Franklin, much pleased with the results, put the label “Photo 51” on the slide—this simple classification would soon become legendary.

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"It was shortly after this rare, clear image was made that Maurice Wilkins began to discuss the possibility of creating a 3D model of DNA. By doing so, Wilkins was trying to find a shortcut through all of the complicated mathematical work that Rosalind Franklin was doing. Rosalind didn’t like the suggestion one bit since she felt that only precise measurements mattered and that “a model was only an educated guess.”

"Rosalind’s mathematical mind wanted an exact formula with which to prove the dimensions of DNA before they started building a model. Wilkins, irked by Rosalind’s disinterest, found himself getting further and further irritated with his colleague. Rosalind had also become very quiet about what she and her assistant Gosling were up to, and this secrecy seriously bothered Wilkins. Soon, the two were barely even on speaking terms.

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"Nevertheless, Franklin persevered with her work, and on November 21, 1951, she was ready to share some of what she had discovered at a seminar in front of several of her colleagues, including an eager DNA researcher by the name of James Watson. Here, she revealed what she had learned about the A and B forms that DNA could take. She described how the A form consisted of a hard-crystalline structure, whereas the B form bonded with water. She also further revealed that the B strands seemed to also bond to phosphate. This was an important finding since it indicated that phosphate existed somewhere in the molecule itself; Rosalind just had to find out exactly where it was located. Little did she know, she had just kicked off a race with her colleagues to see who would be the first to unravel the mysteries of DNA."

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"“The instant I saw the picture my mouth fell open and my pulse began to race. The pattern was unbelievably simpler than those obtained previously. Moreover, the black cross of reflections which dominated the picture could only arise from a helical structure.”

"—James Watson, upon seeing Photo 51"

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"James Watson had a keen memory, and after what he had learned from the seminar Rosalind Franklin took part in at Cambridge, he hooked up with another researcher by the name of Francis Crick. Crick—a scientist with a background in physics—had been bitten by the DNA bug and was determined to figure out how DNA was composed.

"Watson and Crick worked at Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory, and together, they sought to build an enlarged 3D model. They used simple cardboard and wire for their task. It wasn’t much more than what a middle school student might use for a science project, but it was with these basic tools that they sought to recreate what Franklin had described.

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"This model took the limited information available about how DNA might react with phosphate and came up with a DNA molecule that had three strands of it right in the center of its molecular structure. Watson and Crick’s model had four nucleobases that branched out from the root. With this work ready, the pair then had their inspiration for the work—Rosalind Franklin—come over to take a look at it.

"To their dismay, Rosalind was not pleased in the slightest and proceeded to berate them over how wrong she thought it all was. According to her, the phosphate strands were not in the correct location. Another problem was apparently due to the fact that in Crick and Watson’s model, the phosphate was depicted as being negatively charged when Rosalind knew that they should have a positive charge in order for the structure to be able to hold together. Crick and Watson didn’t argue. They knew that Rosalind was most likely right and recommitted themselves to going back to the drawing board and starting over.

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"Although Crick and Watson were clearly dismayed by Rosalind’s retort, Lawrence Bragg, who ran the lab at Cavendish, took a keen interest. Rosalind’s demonstration of superior knowledge on the subject impressed Bragg enough to take Crick and Watson off of DNA research and on to strictly work with proteins. He apparently did this to allow Rosalind Franklin to be the lead researcher in this field so as not to duplicate work and to keep from squandering the limited resources that were available.

"Watson and Crick weren’t willing to rock the boat, so they followed orders. Shortly after being told of the new game plan that was expected of them, they sent their model to King’s College to be placed alongside the rest of Rosalind’s research. Nevertheless, even though they officially shifted to other projects, they were still just as determined to keep an ear to the ground for any further developments that might transpire.

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"Rosalind Franklin, in the meantime, was considering moving to another laboratory altogether. She wasn’t satisfied with the way things were run at King’s College and was looking to see if there was another place that would better suit her tastes.

"As the pressure mounted, she decided to take a brief vacation in 1952 to get away from it all. She traveled to Italy, where she visited Venice, the Dalmatian coast, and the Adriatic Sea. She also took a trek up to the Alps. It was when she returned to England after this trip that John Randall directed Rosalind to move from King’s College to the Birkbeck lab at the University of London. Rosalind gladly accepted the change of scenery or, perhaps more importantly, the change of people.

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"She and Raymond Gosling were at this stage attempting to hash out a two-dimensional approach to mapping DNA. The method that Rosalind used took calculations which were gleaned from the patterns that were present in the X-rayed pictures of DNA. It was the shaded portion of the pattern that fluctuated, and these fluctuations could render precise measurements. Rosalind Franklin had discovered that the darker the spot, the higher the concentration that any given chemical might be. This one clue was her Rosetta Stone. Rosalind became absolutely convinced that using this phenomenon as a reference to produce solid calculations would help her accurately flesh out the real molecular makeup of DNA.

"This was hard work considering the fact that the calculations were made the old-fashioned way—by hand, with paper and pencil. Even as Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling were making these feverish calculations, they attempted to keep their findings as secret as possible. When other colleagues inquired how things were going, Rosalind did her best to keep her research to herself, lest someone were to steal her work.

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"It was in February of 1953 that Rosalind Franklin would finally have the eureka moment that she was looking for. Using the shadow patterns, she managed to work out calculations based upon the double helix structure of DNA. Rosalind could see with clear mathematical precision how DNA strands are capable of replication. This showed that DNA could multiply itself in an endless combination of forms, which could give rise to an endless variety of organisms, such as we have on planet Earth.

"Crick and Watson had by this point returned to work on their model of DNA and had corrected their previous flaws by using Rosalind’s unpublished findings, as well as that helpful Photo 51, which had been shown to them by Wilkins without Rosalind’s knowledge. As it turns out, Rosalind was right to keep her research from others because Crick and Watson were then able to create a successful model and have it published in an article that appeared in April of 1953, thereby taking credit for the discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure.

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"Crick and Watson barely mentioned Franklin’s research in passing when in the last paragraph of the piece they acknowledged, “We have also been stimulated by a knowledge of the general nature of the unpublished experimental results and ideas of Dr. MHF Wilkins, DR. RE Franklin and their co-workers at King’s College London.”

"It’s unlikely that Rosalind was ever aware of how much her work had inspired Crick and Watson. Still, for Franklin, Watson and Crick hadn’t really discovered anything since, in her mind, a model is nothing without the proper mathematics to back it up. This she still had, and she wasn’t going to divulge or give up the details of this masterwork for anyone."

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"“She was a pretty tough person: single-minded, spoke what she believed and could, in fact, be quite fierce. And if she had been a man, it would have gone totally unremarked.”

"—Aaron Klug, on Rosalind Franklin"

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"Right around the time that Watson and Crick’s DNA model found its way into the Nature publication, Rosalind finally left King’s College and made her way to the Birkbeck lab. At that time, the Birkbeck laboratory was run by John Desmond Bernal, a leading figure in the field of X-ray research. Often referred to simply as the “Sage,” he was a man Rosalind Franklin admired, and he too saw a lot of potential in Rosalind—this was despite the fact that Bernal was a known womanizer. According to Rosalind’s sister Jenifer, Bernal was always in an “endless pursuit of endless women.” Rosalind was able to look past these apparent personal foibles and simply liked the man for his brilliant and open mind. For once, she seemed to have a suitable partner in the field.

"Rosalind began her work at Birkbeck in March of 1953. Randall was still trying to pull Rosalind’s strings from afar, however, and he put forth the stipulation that Rosalind was not to work any longer with DNA. Randall insisted that King’s College had a monopoly over DNA research and that any attempt to replicate experiments at Birkbeck would not be allowed. He also dictated that she was not to publish any further articles on any findings having anything to do with DNA.

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"Although other more single-minded researchers might have chafed at such an order, Rosalind didn’t really mind; she had no problem with shifting gears and focusing on something else entirely. Instead of studying DNA, Franklin would now be conducting research into viruses—in particular, the tobacco mosaic virus or, as it is otherwise known, TMV.

"This particular viral strain was ruinous to tobacco crops since it caused them to shrivel up and die before they could be harvested. It was tasked to Rosalind to find out what caused the virus and how this matter could be rectified. The tobacco mosaic virus was actually the very first pathogen to be classified as a virus.

"For some, it may have seemed like a dismal switch to go from studying the make-up of DNA to looking into viral plant strains, but Rosalind saw even further potential. She believed that she could apply knowledge gleaned from the tobacco mosaic virus and use it toward studies into viruses for medicine. She was particularly interested in researching how polio might be cured.

................................................................................................

"In the meantime, Rosalind helped Gosling finish his thesis about their work on the double helix of DNA, in spite of the restriction placed upon her by Randall. This time, she made sure to publish her findings in the July issue of Nature in 1954. She soon found herself becoming more than a little famous due to her mention in Nature, managing to reach all the way across the Atlantic and catch the attention of scientists in the United States. This interest led to Rosalind being invited to the U.S. to demonstrate her knowledge of coal research in 1954.

"Franklin had never been to America before, and she didn’t hesitate to accept the invite. This 1954 flight was a cumbersome one that involved pitstops in Iceland and Canada before she finally landed in Boston, Massachusetts. Rosalind would tour several universities all across the country, giving lectures and demonstrations of her work. Her last lecture took place in Chicago, where she later recalled that “the carbon crowd are entirely uninspired, but in the biological laboratories there are an impressive number of really first-class people.”

................................................................................................

"Despite some of her harsher assessments, Franklin is said to have enjoyed her time in America quite a bit. After her lectures had come to a close, she headed out west where she toured the countryside and even paid a visit to the Grand Canyon. This was followed by a trip to Pasadena, California, before making her way to Berkeley.

"Rosalind wrote down her impressions, “Scientifically the Pasadena visit was most interesting and enjoyable, and here at Berkeley it promises to be quite as good. If things go on alright at Birkbeck, my work will certainly benefit from this journey in a way which could not have been achieved without personal contacts. Apart from the value of discussions, I’ve found a number of good people willing to send me material to work on.”

................................................................................................

"Rosalind expected Berkeley to be particularly interesting because of its renowned virus lab, but she ended up a little disappointed in what she found. She would later write, “The surroundings are beautiful, the climate perfect, and San Francisco is almost a civilized city. But it was the first unfriendly lab I’ve come to. The visit was very interesting and important for me, but was entirely formal although it lasted 4 days, and 4 out of 5 evenings I was simply returned to my hotel at 5:30. I don’t know the explanation, but the contrast with all the other places I’ve been to was striking. On the Sunday I was, however, driven around San Francisco Bay and got my first really clear view of the Pacific, which was exciting. We watched a mass of pelicans over the sea, and saw a golden eagle inland.”

"Along with her lectures, Rosalind made many friends and enjoyed the wide-open spaces, especially out west, where she resumed her lifelong passion of hiking. She would return to England the following year on-board an ocean liner called the Liberté. The usually threadbare Rosalind arrived with some cash to spare thanks to the generous grant she had been given prior to the trip. To the surprise of the Coal Board which had awarded it, Rosalind later on tried to return the left-over money."

................................................................................................

"“Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated. Science, for me, gives a partial explanation for life. In so far as it goes, it is based on fact, experience and experiment.”

"—Rosalind Franklin"

................................................................................................

"Upon her return to Britain, Rosalind Franklin found her group of researchers at Birkbeck struggling to make headway. One of her principal colleagues, Aaron Klug, was running out of time and resources due to a fellowship that was set to expire. While brainstorming how to get further funding, it occurred to Rosalind that she could perhaps reach out to some of the people she had met in American academia for assistance. One of her key contacts, Robley Williams, was a leading professor in virology at Berkeley, and she knew he could provide a good reference.

"It was all of these musings that finally led Rosalind to submit an application with the U.S. National Institute of Health. In her application, she highlighted her breakthroughs in the field of virology while making it clear that she needed assistance in order for the important work she was doing to continue. Her application reads like an academic paper with Rosalind explaining the breakthroughs that were being made in great detail.

................................................................................................

"One passage of her entry explained, “The work is concerned with what is probably the most fundamental of all questions concerning the mechanism of living processes, namely the relationship between protein and nucleic acid in the living cell. It is known that the nucleic acids carry genetic information, and that they are intimately connected with the synthesis of proteins. While a considerable amount is known about the molecular structure both of the nucleic acids and of proteins, almost nothing is known of the in vivo relationship between the two types of molecule.”

"Franklin knew that she was right on the edge of a major discovery; she just needed a little help to keep her lab work afloat long enough to make it happen. If she could get a research grant, it would make all of the difference in the world. So it was that in early 1956, Rosalind made a return trip to the United States and Berkeley.

................................................................................................

"After consulting with her contacts at Berkeley, it was determined that she and her colleagues would be well suited to participate in research on the poliovirus. It was in this regard that the NIH ended up approving a sizeable grant to Birkbeck that would last for three consecutive years. This was a great boon for Rosalind, but it would be overshadowed by a sudden onset of health problems.

"While she was abroad on her second trip to the U.S., she began to suffer from persistent and chronic pain in her stomach. Her stomach was so bloated she was having trouble getting her clothing to fit. She began to seek medical care in search of what was wrong, but initially, medical professionals seemed baffled. One doctor even asked her if it were possible that she could be pregnant, to which Rosalind remarked, “I wish I were.”

................................................................................................

"Sadly, her situation would continue to deteriorate, and it was soon discovered that—far from carrying a baby—her abdomen had two large tumors rapidly growing inside. As it turned out, the bloating and sharp aches and pains that Rosalind was suffering from were the results of a rapidly progressing case of ovarian cancer.

"Cancer has always been a deadly illness, but back in the 1950s, it was even more of a death sentence. The only real way to treat cancer was to surgically remove the cancerous tissue. As such, in September of that year, Franklin was subjected to her first surgery to attempt to remove the cancerous growths. The doctors tried their best to get the tumors out of her body, but they couldn’t be certain that they got it all. Fearing that the cancer may have already spread, they told Franklin that it would be in her best interest to have her uterus removed as well. This was a devastating blow since it meant that Rosalind would not be able to have children in the future, but Rosalind, knowing that her life was at stake, agreed to have it done.

................................................................................................

"After this operation, Rosalind and her doctors hoped that this would be the end of it, but as is often the case with cancer, there was always the chance that it could come right back. The give-away that the cancer most likely was on the rebound came when she began to experience renewed pain and bleeding—these were the tell-tale signs that something wasn’t right.

"Rosalind went back to the doctor, and they examined her again, and sure enough, this time, they found yet another new growth. Rather than risk another operation, her physicians decided to try a new experimental regimen that involved cobalt therapy. This involved the use of gamma rays, which were used to target cancerous cells. This form of treatment was not the most accurate, however, and often harmed just as many healthy cells as it did cancerous ones."

................................................................................................

"Much as chemo and more modern versions of radiation treatment do to patients today, this rigorous form of therapy would often leave Rosalind completely exhausted and sick. Nevertheless, she was a fighter, and despite the pain and discomfort she felt, she attempted to continue with her life as normally as she could. This, of course, meant that she continued her work in the lab.

"Despite her failing health, at this point in her life, Rosalind was now widely viewed as an expert in X-ray crystallography. Even during her convalescence, she was as busy as ever, feverishly publishing papers for journals and doing research on new specimens that were sent to her from all over the world. She was also in the midst of a major project on TMV for the upcoming Brussels World’s Fair.

................................................................................................

"Things rapidly deteriorated by the time spring had arrived, and in April, Rosalind was passing her final days at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London. Here, she was given another emergency operation, but it didn’t seem to be of any use. Even as Rosalind’s display of her research for TMV was gaining considerable traction at the Brussels World’s Fair, Rosalind Elsie Franklin was slowly slipping away.

"Upon coming to grips with her mortality, Rosalind created a will in which she placed her three brothers as executors. Whatever money she had was split between a few close colleagues and friends, a nurse who cared for her, and the rest was given as a donation to charity. At her bedside, Rosalind continued to read and take notes as her mind continued to consider where the next possibilities of her work might lead. Sadly, she would not get to live to see the path she had blazed through to the end, but her colleagues would carry out her directives after she was gone.

................................................................................................

"Rosalind Franklin passed away on April 16, 1958, at the age of 37. It’s generally been theorized that Rosalind’s cancer had its origins in her work with X-rays, but family history can’t be ruled out either since other family members had perished from similar cancers, and they most certainly had not worked with X-rays like Rosalind. The Franklin family was naturally grieved, but they were also astonished when condolences began to pour in from well-wishers all across the globe. They knew that Rosalind’s work was important, but they had not quite realized just how far-reaching it had been.

"Shortly after Rosalind’s passing, an obituary appeared in her honor in the scientific journal Nature. It was fitting that this publication that had played such a prominent role in her findings would have the last say on her life. The words expressed there perhaps summed up her last moments on Earth better than anything else. The obituary read in part, “Her devotion to research showed itself at its finest in the last months of her life. Although stricken with an illness which she knew would be fatal, she continued to work right up to the end. Her early death is a great loss to science.”

"Those words were written by her last lab supervisor, John Desmond Bernal. Bernal had witnessed the tireless efforts of Rosalind Franklin up close, and he had come to admire both her brilliance and her dedicated work effort. Bernal knew that Rosalind was most definitely uniquely gifted in both her sheer talent as well as her disposition, and he realized that he probably wouldn’t find a research scientist quite like her again."

................................................................................................

" ... Franklin lived at a time when great restraint was placed on women who dared to work in the field of science. Rosalind never let these social barriers get in the way of her and her dreams. She consistently ignored the chatter she heard around her and kept plugging away until her results spoke for themselves. No matter what anyone’s bias may have been at the time, they couldn’t deny the mathematical equations, X-ray photos, and other breakthroughs that Rosalind Franklin facilitated.

"Despite her many discoveries, Franklin was never nominated for a Nobel Prize. After her death, Maurice Wilkins, Francis Crick, and James Watson were given the Nobel Prize for the discovery of DNA’s structure—work to which Rosalind had greatly contributed. Similarly, in 1982, Rosalind’s main colleague at Birkbeck, Aaron Klug, was awarded the Nobel Prize for continuing the research she had started on viruses."

................................................................................................

Table of Contents

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Introduction

Early Life in London

Education: Years at Cambridge

Franklin during World War II

From Paris to London

Photo 51: The Mysteries of DNA

Rivalry: The Race to Discovery

Study of Viruses

Late Life and Illness

Premature Death

Conclusion

Bibliography

................................................................................................

REVIEW

................................................................................................

Introduction

................................................................................................

"Rosalind Franklin, who helped to pave the way to a better understanding of DNA, has only recently received widespread attention for her achievements. ... "

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October 01, 2022 - October 01, 2022.

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................................................................................................

Chapter 1. Early Life in London

................................................................................................

"“She was the best at science, she was the best at math, and she was just one of the best in that year.”

"—Anne Piper, lifelong friend of Rosalind Franklin"

................................................................................................

"At the time of Franklin’s birth, the understanding of how viruses passed from one person to another was still in its infancy. Little Rosalind, however, would one day grow up to revolutionize the field. She was the daughter of two influential Jewish parents—her father, Ellis Arthur Franklin, was a successful banker, and her mother, Muriel Frances Waley, a stay-at-home housewife and active member of the community.

"Rosalind was found to be a smart and curious child from a young age, and this inquisitiveness would serve her well in school. At the age of six, she began her formal education at the private and prestigious Norland Place School in London. She was found to be particularly gifted in math and also had a flair for languages, yet as she progressed through the years, her true love quickly became the field of science.

................................................................................................

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October 01, 2022 - October 02, 2022.

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Chapter 2. Education: Years at Cambridge

................................................................................................

"—Rosalind Franklin"

................................................................................................

"It was in an effort to aid these refugees that Rosalind’s father Ellis devoted much of his time to Woburn House, a refugee center which helped provide the newcomers with living arrangements and opportunities for work. Rosalind also participated in the aid that was rendered at Woburn House and volunteered at the center during her spare time after school. The Franklin family understood the difficulties that Jews were facing in Europe and didn’t hesitate to offer their support. At one point, the family even allowed a couple of refugees from Austria to stay with them at their home.

"Back at school meanwhile, Rosalind continued to excel, and by the time she was 15, she already knew what she wanted to do with her life; she desired to craft a professional career in the field of science. Using her good grades as a springboard, she set her sights on Britain’s esteemed Cambridge University a couple of years later, at the age of 17. In order to gain entry, she first needed to make sure she could pass the entrance exams for chemistry and physics. This meant several nights of hunkering down and studying on the part of Rosalind. Her hard work paid off; she passed both and managed to score top marks in chemistry.

................................................................................................

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October 02, 2022 - October 02, 2022.

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................................................................................................

Chapter 3. Franklin during World War II

................................................................................................

"—Rosalind Franklin"

................................................................................................

"Upon her graduation from college, Rosalind was given a fellowship through Newnham, thanks to which she started to conduct research under the guidance of chemist Ronald George Wreyford Norrish.

................................................................................................

Also, eventually, in development of bulletproof clothing?

................................................................................................

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October 02, 2022 - October 02, 2022.

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................................................................................................

Chapter 4. From Paris to London

................................................................................................

"“We wish to discuss a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid. (D.N.A.). This structure has novel features which are of considerable biologic interest.”

"—Rosalind Franklin"

Goosebumps!

................................................................................................

"He would later recall one of these occasions when he and Rosalind attended an opera together, and he saw a whole other side of the scientist. Raymond Gosling fondly remembered how fun it was to be around her and how she had “eyes that sparkled” with excitement. However, as well as Raymond Gosling and Rosalind Franklin hit it off, their relationship would become a bone of contention for Maurice Wilkins. Gosling had previously been Wilkins’ assistant before he was reassigned to Franklin. Regardless of Randall’s reassignment of Gosling to Franklin, Wilkins wished to keep Gosling to himself.

"Nevertheless, Wilkins and Franklin tried to get on well enough with each other, but it was only a matter of time before their conflicting personalities began to rub the wrong way. Slowly but surely, they began to experience friction. At first, it was just a matter of academic disagreements, something that Randall encouraged since he felt that it made his researchers more competitive. Randall, as it turns out, had even been telling Franklin behind the scenes that she would one day take over as head researcher when it came to X-ray crystallography and DNA, something that Maurice Wilkins would, of course, not take so well. This also gave Rosalind a kind of ego boost, causing her to feel that she shouldn’t have to listen to anything Wilkins had to say.

"Things would come to a head in the summer of 1951 when Rosalind attended a conference in which Wilkins spoke before the crowd. Wilkins was simply giving an update on the progress of the research, describing how he believed that the DNA molecular structure was most likely in the shape of a helix. He was received well enough, but after he wrapped things up, Rosalind apparently came over to him and remarked that he should go back to his microscopes and leave the X-ray crystallography to her.

"For better or for worse, Rosalind Franklin was driven to lead."

................................................................................................

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October 02, 2022 - October 02, 2022.

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................................................................................................

Chapter 5. Photo 51: The Mysteries of DNA

................................................................................................

"—Rosalind Franklin"

................................................................................................

................................................

October 02, 2022 - October 02, 2022.

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................................................................................................

Chapter 6. Rivalry: The Race to Discovery

................................................................................................

"—James Watson, upon seeing Photo 51"

................................................................................................

"By this point, she was entirely disillusioned with her colleagues at King’s College and felt that there wasn’t anyone there who was quite on the same page with her. As she explained it to her friend Adrienne Weill at the time, “The other serious trouble is that there isn’t a first-class or even a good brain among them. In fact, nobody with whom I particularly want to discuss anything, scientific or otherwise, and I so much prefer to work under somebody who commands my respect and can offer some encouragement.”

"Rosalind Franklin was looking for people that she could relate to both on an intellectual and personal level, and she held out the hope that the lab at Birkbeck might just have what she needed. Before she packed up her things, however, she had some more work to finish up at King’s College first.

................................................................................................

................................................

October 02, 2022 - October 02, 2022.

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................................................................................................

Chapter 7. Study of Viruses

................................................................................................

"“She was a pretty tough person: single-minded, spoke what she believed and could, in fact, be quite fierce. And if she had been a man, it would have gone totally unremarked.”

"—Aaron Klug, on Rosalind Franklin"

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October 02, 2022 - October 02, 2022.

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................................................................................................

Chapter 8. Late Life and Illness

................................................................................................

"“Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated. Science, for me, gives a partial explanation for life. In so far as it goes, it is based on fact, experience and experiment.”

"—Rosalind Franklin"

................................................................................................

"Rosalind also stayed in contact with her peers in the field and developed a closer relationship with her former colleague Francis Crick. After getting to know each other better, she became particularly close to Francis Crick’s wife, Odile. Towards the end of her life, Rosalind seemed to have put some of the previous hard feelings behind her. Her health was getting worse, however, and by 1958, Franklin had lost a lot of weight, and much of her strength was gone. At one point, she even lost the use of one of her limbs. During this time, she stayed with a wide variety of family and friends as she attempted to recover. The one person she pointedly stayed away from was her mother since her mother’s open grieving over her condition disturbed her too much.

"Just weeks before she passed, Rosalind had paid her parents a visit for her father’s 64th birthday. She had tried to make a brave face of it, but her mother took one look at her and, seeing the wasted condition of her body, immediately broke down in tears. Her mother knew—and Rosalind could not hide—the fact that her time was short.

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October 02, 2022 - October 02, 2022.

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................................................................................................

Chapter 9. Premature Death

................................................................................................

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October 02, 2022 - October 02, 2022.

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................................................................................................

10. Conclusion

................................................................................................

................................................

October 02, 2022 - October 02, 2022.

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................................................................................................

11. Bibliography

................................................................................................

"Borgert, Megan (2017). Rosalind Franklin: Unlocking DNA.

"Crick, Francis (1994). The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul.

"Glynn, Jenifer (2012). My Sister Rosalind Franklin.

"Maddox, Brenda (2002). Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA.

"Sayre, Anne (1975). Rosalind Franklin and DNA.

"Streissguth, Thomas (2017). Rosalind Franklin: DNA Discoverer.

"Watson, James D. & Stent, Gunther Siegmund (1969). The Double Helix.

"William, Gareth (2019). Unravelling the Double Helix: The Lost Heroes of DNA.

"Secret of Photo 51, documentary broadcast in 2003 on PBS NOVA."

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................................................

October 02, 2022 - October 02, 2022.

................................................

................................................................................................

Rosalind Franklin: A Life

from Beginning to End

(Biographies of Women in History)

Hourly History

................................................

October 01, 2022 - October 02, 2022.

Purchased October 01, 2022.

ASIN:- B09H7QKX61

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................................................................................................

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5019994698

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Reviews - Books I Read - DRJG

Sunday, October 2, 2022

Rosalind Franklin: A Life from Beginning to End (Biographies of Women in History); by Hourly History.

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