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Thursday, July 25, 2013

This Day in History - Rosalind Franklin

Rosalind Franklin was the first photographer  of DNA (Double Helix-Model).  Maurice Wilkins, James Watson, and Francis Crick received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962. She was one of the woman scientist that caused much controversy in the findings of her research of deoxyribonucleic acid.

Franklin was a wiz at science as it was one of her favorite subject.  She attended an all girl school in London where she took chemistry and physics.  At age 15, she knew what she wanted to become, a scientist.  Her father was unsupportive of women for higher education and wanted Franklin to be a social worker.  She finally received her wish for higher education and attended Newnham, College, Cambridge from 1938 and graduated 1941.  Shortly after, she continued her research of carbon and graphite microstructures at the British Coal Utilization Research Association. During the same time, she continued to attend Cambridge where she earned her doctorate in physical chemistry in 1945.  She ventured to Paris, France for three years at the Laboratoire Central de Services Chimiques de L'Etat.  There, she discovered the study of X-ray diffraction methods.  In 1951, she decided to go back home to London as a Research Associate at John Randall's laboratory in King's College. Franklin met Maurice Wilkins who also had strong interest in the research of DNA. 

Later, Wilkins was reported to show the crystallographic photograph of the DNA structure. Just as Einstein was near the solution to the discovery of time travel, Franklin almost solved the compounds of the DNA structure.  She researched other projects including the polio virus and the tobacco mosaic virus.  In the summer of 1956, Rosalind Franklin became ill with cancer. She died less than two years later.

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