|
|
|
 |
 |
Why do we love Rosalind?
When one thinks about the determination of the structure of DNA—perhaps the
greatest breakthroughs in modern science—the two researchers immediately
come to mind are Watson and Crick. If time had been on her side, a third
name might easily come to mind: Rosalind Franklin. Born in 1920, Rosalind
was the first daughter in a family of five children. Her family, going back
to her great-grandparents, both the men and women were known for business
successes and social and political activism. Rosalind was raised and
received her early education alongside her brothers, atypical for proper
English girls of the time. While supportive and appreciative of his daughter
intellectual abilities, Rosalind's father initially encouraged her to pursue
a life of social work. She resisted and stuck with science, training as
physical chemist. After receiving her doctorate degree, she went to Paris
where she learned, from her mentor Jacques Mering, X-ray crystallography.
She was invited by Professor J.T. Randall to build an X-ray diffraction unit
at King's College, Oxford. Once the facilities were established, Rosalind
began conducting X-ray diffraction studies of DNA. Her time at King's
College was one of the loneliest and most depressing of her life. The male
hierarchy entrenched in the British university system at the time, and a
mutual animosity with another researcher under studying DNA Randall, kept
her apart from her fellow researchers. Despite her isolation, Rosalind was
able to make remarkable progress with her DNA crystallography research. On
February 6, 1953, unbeknownst to Rosalind, Maurice Wilkins showed James
Watson Rosalind's unpublished X-ray photograph of the B-form of DNA. Even
Watson, who painted a very unflattering character of "Rosy" in his book, The
Double Helix (1968), admitted that "the instant [he] saw the picture, [his]
mouth fell open and [his] pulse began to race..." Almost three months later,
on April 25, 1953, Watson and Crick's famous "Molecular Structure of Nucleic
Acids" was published in Nature. While acknowledging Rosalind's companion
article in the same issue, there was no mention of Rosalind's
photograph/data. Rosalind left King's College in 1953, and spent the
remaining five years of her life conducting groundbreaking research into the
structure of the tobacco mosaic virus. Much debate continues today as to
whether Rosalind, had she lived, would have shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for
Physiology and Medicine with Watson and Crick. (Nobel prizes are not awarded
posthumously.) Some have even suggested that she alone deserved the honor.
|
Biography:
Born - July 25, 1920
London, England
Died - April 16, 1958
London, England
Achievements:
- B.A. from Newnham College, Cambridge University (1941).
- Ph.D.from Cambridge University(1945).Her thesis title was: "The Physical Chemistry of Solid Organic Colloids with Special Relation to Coal and Related Materials."
- Assistant Research Officer for British Coal Utilization Research Association (CURA) (1942-1946). She published five articles (three of which she was sole author) concerning the microstructures of coals. It has been said that her fundamental work in this area was "remarkable.She brought order into a field which had previously been in chaos."
- Cherucher of the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État, Paris (1947-1950). Published eleven articles (only one was co-authored) based upon her research here.She was the first to divide coals and other organic materials into two categories: nongraphitizing carbons and those that convert to graphite.
- Held a Turner-Newall Research Fellowship (1951-1958).
- Established the X-ray Crystallography Laboratory at King's College, University of London, (1951-1953).
- Produced defining X-ray crystallography evidence that provide defining support/inspiration for the Watson & Crick structural DNA model.
- Postdoctoral research at Birkbeck College, University of London (1953-1958).Published 17 articles (three posthumously) based upon her research of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV).She showed that the DNA virus was a hollow (long thought to be solid) cylinder with protein units on the outside, and laid the structural foundation for future virus research.
- Her TMV model was the central feature of the virus exhibit at the Brussels World Fair (1958).
- X-ray crystallography laboratory at Birbeck College named in her honor (1997).
- Credited by her French colleagues with speaking the best French any of them had ever heard in a foreign mouth.
- Relished world travel, especially thriving on low-cost travel "because then you need your wits."
|
|
In her own words -- On cracking the genetic code:
"Conclusion: Big helix in several chains, phosphates on outside, phosphate-phosphate inter-helical bonds disrupted by water. Phosphate links available to proteins." — "Colloquium, Nov. 1951," typewritten and dated February 7, 1952.
(Evidence that, aside from the nature of base pairing, Rosalind's data held the rest of DNA's basic structure long before Watson & Crick's 1953 article)
In other's words:
"What she touched, she adorned." — Aaron Klug, collaborator.
"Her photographs are among the most beautiful X-ray photographs of any substance ever taken." — J.D. Bernal, supervising head of Birbeck laboratory.
|
| |
|
|
|
