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Contributor: A. Castle. Lesson ID: 14365
Step into the world of DNA discovery! Meet Rosalind Franklin, the scientist behind the famous Photo 51, and uncover the mystery of the double helix.
The Mystery of Photo 51
Imagine working tirelessly in a lab, capturing images that could change the world—only to have your discoveries used by others without your knowledge.
This is exactly what happened to Rosalind Franklin, a brilliant scientist whose work was crucial to one of the biggest discoveries in history: the structure of DNA.
Her story is one of genius, perseverance, and controversy. While others won the fame and the Nobel Prize, Franklin’s contributions were hidden in the shadows—until now.
Get ready to uncover the real story behind the double helix!
Who Was Rosalind Franklin?
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Rosalind Franklin was a British scientist born in 1920. From a young age, she had a passion for chemistry and math, which led her to study at Cambridge University. But in the 1940s and 50s, being a woman in science wasn’t easy. Men dominated many universities and research labs, and women often weren’t given the same recognition for their work. Despite these challenges, Franklin became an expert in X-ray diffraction, a technique used to take detailed images of molecules. |
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Her work led to the famous Photo 51, which provided key evidence that DNA had a helical structure.
The DNA Discovery Controversy
While working at King’s College London, Franklin and her colleague Raymond Gosling captured Photo 51, an X-ray image of DNA showing its twisted shape.
Without Franklin’s permission, Maurice Wilkins, another researcher at King’s College, shared her image with James Watson. Watson and his research partner, Francis Crick, used the photo to confirm their model of DNA’s structure.
In 1953, Watson and Crick published their findings in Nature magazine. Franklin’s data was also published in the same issue, but she wasn’t credited for her role in solving the mystery.
In 1962, Watson, Crick, and Wilkins won the Nobel Prize, but Franklin had already passed away from cancer in 1958 at just 37 years old.
Was She Robbed of a Nobel Prize?
The Nobel Prize rules state that awards cannot be given posthumously (after death), so Franklin couldn’t have received it in 1962.
Many scientists believe so. Her work was crucial to the discovery, but her contributions went unrecognized for years because of sexism in science and lack of credit.
Today, Franklin is finally getting the recognition she deserves. Scientists, historians, and even Watson himself have admitted that she played a key role in understanding DNA.
Watch the following video on Rosalind Franklin and her contribution to science.
Why Does This Matter?
Rosalind Franklin’s story is about more than DNA. It’s about fairness, recognition, and how history remembers scientific discoveries.
Without her work, the structure of DNA might have taken years longer to uncover.
Head to the Got It? section!
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