Rosalind Franklin: Biography &
Discovery of DNA Structure
By Mary Bagley, LiveScience Contributor | September 19, 2013 05:20pm ET
Many people recall that the structure of the DNA molecule has the shape of a double
helix. Some may even recall the names of the scientists who won the 1962 Nobel Prize
in Medicine for modeling the structure of the molecule, and explaining how the shape
lends itself to replication. James Watson and Francis Crick shared the Nobel Prize with
Maurice Wilkins, but many people feel that much of the credit for this world-shaking
achievement should rightfully go to someone who was absent from that stage, a woman
named Rosalind Franklin.
Rosalind Franklin was born July 25, 1920, and grew up in a well-known Jewish family in
pre-World War II London, and was known in the family for being very clever and
outspoken. Her parents sent her to St. Paul’s Girls’ School, a private school known for
rigorous academics, including physics and chemistry. In an interview for PBS’ NOVA
television episode titled "The Secret of Photo 51," two of her friends recalled memories
of Franklin’s school days.
“She was best in science, best at math, best in everything. She expected that if she
undertook to do something, she would be in charge of it.” By the age of 15, over
objections from her father, who thought she should go into social work; Franklin decided
to become a scientist.
Franklin graduated from Newnham College at Cambridge in 1938 and took a job with
the British Coal Utilization Research Association. She was determined to make a
contribution to the war effort, and published several papers on the structures and uses
of coal and graphite. Her work was used in development of the gas masks that helped
keep British soldiers safer. Her work earned her a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry awarded
by Cambridge University in 1945.
In 1947, Franklin moved to Paris to take up a job at the Laboratoire Central working with
Jacques Mering on perfecting the science of X-ray chromatography. By all accounts,
she was very happy in Paris, easily earning the respect of her colleagues. She was
known to enjoy doing the meticulous mathematical equations necessary to interpret
data about atomic structure that was being revealed by the X-ray techniques. However,
in 1951, she reluctantly decided it was necessary to move back to London to advance
her scientific career.
Skirting a leftover bomb crater to enter the lab at King’s College in London, Franklin
found she was expected to work with antiquated equipment in the basement of the
building. She took charge of the lab with her customary efficiency, directing the
graduate student, Raymond Gosling, in making needed refinements to the X-ray
equipment.
She was annoyed when she discovered that she was expected to interrupt her work and
leave the building for lunch every day. Women were not allowed in the College
cafeteria. Nevertheless, she and Gosling were making progress in studying DNA when
Maurice Wilkins, another senior scientist, returned from his vacation.
Wilkins was upset to learn that the female “assistant,” who he had expected would be
working for him, was instead a formidable researcher in her own right. In this tense
atmosphere, Franklin continued working to refine her X-ray images, using finer DNA
fibers and arranging them differently for her chromatography, but she began to fear she
had made a mistake in leaving Paris. Wilkins, also uncomfortable, began to spend more
time at nearby Cavendish Laboratory with his friend Francis Crick. Crick and his partner,
James Watson, were working on a model-based approach to trying to discover the
structure of the DNA molecule.
Around this time, Franklin and Gosling made a startling discovery. There were two
forms of DNA shown in the X-ray images, a dry “A” form and a wetter “B” form. Because
each X-ray chromatograph had to be exposed for over 100 hours to form an image, and
the drier “A” form seemed likelier to produce images in more detail, Franklin set aside
the “B” form to study later. She noted that the “B” form images appeared to show a
definite helical structure and that there were two clear strands visible in the image she
labeled Photo 51 before she filed it away.
Around this time, Franklin attended a conference given at Cavendish Laboratory to
observe an early DNA model being proposed by Watson and Crick. She was quite
critical of their work, feeling that they were basing their model solely on conjecture
whereas her own work was based on solid evidence.
Her treatment of his friends widened the gap between her and Wilkins, leading to an
even more strained relationship at King’s College. Franklin was so unhappy that people
in the lab began to talk behind her back calling her the “Dark Lady.” In 1953, she
decided to move to Birkbeck College to escape King’s. Somehow, during the move,
Wilkins came to be in possession of Franklin’s notes and the files containing Photo 51.
Wilkins removed the photo from her records without her knowledge or permission and
took it to show his friends Watson and Crick at Cavendish Laboratory.
“My mouth fell open and my pulse began to race,” wrote James Watson in his famous
book, "The Double Helix." It was the one bit of information that he and Crick needed to
complete an accurate model of the structure of DNA. Photo 51 was proof that DNA’s
helical structure had two strands attached in the middle by the phosphate bases. They
hurried to publish their findings in the journal Nature. The same issue of the journal
published much shorter articles by Wilkins and Franklin, but placed them after the
longer article by James Watson, seeming to imply that their work merely served to
confirm the important discovery made by Watson and Crick rather than being integral to
it.
Franklin, meanwhile, had moved on to Birkbeck Laboratory. Part of the arrangement
that allowed her to leave King’s College was that she would not pursue any research on
DNA, so she turned her talents to studying virus particles. Between 1953 and 1958, she
made important discoveries about the tobacco mosaic virus and polio. The work done
by Franklin and the other scientists at Birkbeck Laboratory during this time laid the
foundation of modern virology.
Franklin died on April 16, 1958, of ovarian cancer, possibly caused by her extensive
exposure to radiation while doing X-ray crystallography work. Because the Nobel
Prize can only be shared among three living scientists, Franklin’s work was barely
mentioned when it was awarded to Watson, Crick and Wilkins in 1962. By the time "The
Double Helix" was written in 1968, Franklin was portrayed almost as a villain in the
book. Watson describes her as a “belligerent, emotional woman unable to interpret her
own data.”
It is only in the past decade that Franklin’s contribution has been acknowledged and
honored. Today there are many new facilities, scholarships and research grants
especially those for women, being named in her honor.