Rosalind    Franklin 

By: Alisha McMillan

 

Rosalind Franklin was born in London, England on July 25 1920. She had four siblings,Jenifer, Colin, Roland, and David Franklin. Since the age of 15 Franklin wanted to become a scientist.

 

 She went to Cambridge for college in 1983 and studied chemistry. In 1941 Franklin was awarded second class honors in her finals. Which was accepted as a bachelor’s degree in the qualification of employment.   After she went to work at British coal utilisation research association. In 1945 ( Also when world war II ended)  

In the fall of 1946 Franklin went to a Lab in Paris where she worked with crystallographer Jacques Mering. He taught her X-ray diffraction, which will play an important role in her research of the structure of DNA.  In 1952 Franklin took photo 51. Photo 51 was an X-ray diffraction image that gave James Watson and Francis Crick some crucial pieces of information. Only after that Watson and Crick realized that DNA must have a double helical structure. If Rosalind Franklin didn’t take that photo we might not have ever found out about these “building blocks” of life.  Sadly in 1958 Franklin died because of Ovarian cancer because of the exposure to X-rays. 

I amire Rosalind Franklin because she had to experience sexism in science, and even though she was accepted into Cambridge University she was still not recognized as a full member. Yet she still achieved amazing things.  

 

If I could have Rosalind Franklin over for Dinner and I could ask her three questions I’d ask her

1. If you had known that exposure to  X-rays would kill you would you still take that risk?
2. If you had to be anything but a scientist what would you be?
3. Why didn’t you ever get married?