Rosalind
Franklin was
was born of Jewish parents on July 20, 1920 in London. After
graduating from Cambridge University in 1941, Franklin assisted in
the war effort for four years by researching better ways to use coal
as fuel, and later earned her Ph.D. in 1945. Though she researched
many subjects, she is best known for taking "photos" of the molecular
structure of DNA using a technique called X-ray crystallography.
Franklin's photos provided hard evidence for the double-helix structure of DNA, the molecular carrier of inherited information. She was the first to recognize that the sugar and phosphate chains of DNA were on the outside of the molecule, not in the inside. She also recognized the helical structure of DNA in her photographs. Had she lived until 1962, Franklin may have been among the three scientists to win the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the structure of DNA. However, Franklin died in 1958 of ovarian cancer and the prize is not awarded after someone's death.
Designed by: Keli A. Sato
References
Sayre, A. (1975). Rosalind Franklin and DNA. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Stille, D. R. (1995). Extraordinary Women Scientists. Chicago: Children's Press.
Watson, J. (1959). The Double Helix. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Yount, L. (1996). Twentieth-Century Women Scientists. New York: Facts on File.