Name: Rosalind Franklin
Date of birth: July 25,1920
Works: Discovered structure of DNA
Molecular structure of Virus
Nationality:British
Alma mater:Caimbridge University
Referred to as the ‘Dark lady of DNA’, Rosling Franklin was undermined and her work — stolen and plagiarised by her colleagues. She never received any recognition from her field for her contributions to Medical Science.
Gosling was a PhD student working on his PhD under Franklin. He had taken a pic of the double helix structure of the DNA under her guidance. Without her permission, one of her coworkers Maurice Wilkens took the sample and showed it to James Watson who was able to develop a chemical structure of the double helix of DNA.
They stole her work and simultaneously published the research work containing the picture and the chemical structure of the same under their names in the ‘Nature’ magazine. They both received Nobel prizes for this accomplishment in Physiology and Medicine. The credit was never offered to Franklin as there are no takebacks for the Nobel Prize.
We all know how important a part DNA plays in the current medical sciences. Many diseases could be cured and even some latest tech is based around DNA like CRISPR.
Unfortunately, this was only the first instance.
Rosalind Franklin had an early death at the young age of 387. Her last project was about the molecular structure of a virus. Due to given circumstances the Nobel Prize and recognition for her work were given to another one of her colleagues.
If she weren’t a victim of her circumstances, Franklin would have been the 2nd woman after Marie Curie to receive two Nobel prizes.
History’s portrayal of women always tend to crush their image in any role except that of a mother, wife, sister or daughter, it has always shown women to be lower than men in any skill, treating them as decorations on sidelines and burying within itself any of those who managed to rise above and beyond. Similar instances are portrayed in ‘A Room Of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf.
Let us keep her in our memory, along with many others who haven’t been recognised by society for their tributes, as they must not be forgotten.
Through my eyes 