Rosalind Franklin in 1955
For those that don't know, the story behind the discovery of the structure of DNA is intense and dramatic. It includes rival universities and infighting between colleagues. There is unprofessionalism and theft, along with name-calling and to my mind, tragedy at the end.
To set the scene: 1951, King's College, London. Rosalind Franklin has just started working as a research associate at the Medical Research Council Biophysics unit, under John Randall. Initially planing on working on proteins and lipids, she has been assigned to work on DNA fibres.
Born in 1920 to a prominent Anglo-Jewish family, Rosalind Franklin is called 'alarmingly clever' by her mother at 6 years old. She enters Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1938 after coming first in her Cambridge examination in Chemistry. In 1947, after obtaining her PhD, she moves to Paris to work with Jacques Mering, an X-ray crystallographer.
X-ray crystallography is a technique that uses x-rays to determine the structure of a molecule. What you basically do is crystallize a molecule, and fire a load of X-rays at it. The X-rays bounce off points in the crystal and starts to head in a different direction. Almost like if you hit a tennis ball at the wall of your house, it doesn't bounce straight back at you. So by picking up where the x-rays bounce to, you can work out what they bounced off and from there work out its structure. By 1951, she is an expert in X-ray crystallography. This is why John Randall has reassigned her to DNA fibres when she begins at King's College. He feels that x-rays are the way to discover the structure. As it happens, he's not wrong.
Franklin is a female scientist in a time where females are still having to fight for the right to study. At King's college, there is still a mixed dining room and a male-only dining room. For females, they are still second-class scientists. Even in Newnham college and Girton college (the other female college) the women are referred to as 'students of Girton and Newnham Colleges', and are not considered undergraduates or members of the University. Only 500 women are admitted, to prevent their members exceeding 10% of the collective male undergraduate body. Cambridge admitted women since 1869- but only starting admitting Jews since 1871.
Also in King's College, we have the infamous Maurice Wilkins (remember his name!), along with the PhD Student Raymond Gosling. Maurice Wilkins has been working at King's College and on DNA molecules since 1946- but has worked under John Randall since 1945, at the University of St Andrews.
Maurice Wilkins
Now, Raymond Gosling is probably at least part of the reason for the tense relationship that Wilkins and Franklin end up in. See, Raymond is initially working as Wilkins' PhD student, and together they have had made some good progress in working on DNA fibres using X-rays, but when Franklin comes, he is assigned to work under her as her assistant instead. Wilkins had no say in this. Gosling probably didn't have much input in the decision either. This can't have made Wilkins feel particularly charitable towards Franklin.
Raymond Gosling.
Meanwhile, about 90 minutes drive up the road, over in the beautiful city of Cambridge, we have two other scientists who names will live in DNA history; James Watson and Francis Crick.
James Watson entered the University of Chicago at the age of 15; In 1951, he's 23 years old with a doctorate and very interested in genes and DNA. In fact, he tried to encourage a relationship between Wilkins and his sister Elizabeth so that he can become 'closely associated' with his DNA work.
James Watson
Francis Crick was working on his thesis on diffraction of proteins at the time. He wasn't particularly interested in DNA at first- but was curious about how genes copied themselves. Without working out the structure of DNA, this is something that cannot be solved.
Francis Crick.
So here we are. Four scientists, and one PhD student, all working on discovering the structure of DNA.
Fast forward two years. 1953. Things aren't going well with Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin. Both seem to be annoying each other and misinterpreting each other. Franklin thinks Wilkins is trying to interpret her own data, whilst Wilkins thinks Franklin is taking all the best equipment- and has already taken his PhD student. Meanwhile, Watson and Crick are off frantically trying to build a model of DNA -and want to do it before Linus Pauling, another researcher elsewhere, works it out.
On the 30th January, Watson turns up at King's College London, clutching a paper by Linus Pauling and enters Franklin's office uninvited- where she is measuring an X-ray photograph. Watson clearly interrupting her, wishes to talk to her about the errors in the paper. After Franklin points out that a helical structure is not yet proven, Watson concludes that she is impotent in interpreting X-ray images and implies as such. To suggest that an expert in X-ray crystallography cannot interrupt the associated images is a little ludicrous. According to Watson, an angry Franklin then kicked him out of the office, and he was 'rescued' by Wilkins. To be honest, if I was a respected researcher in a certain field and someone who doesn't work in that field implied that I couldn't interpret my data properly, I wouldn't be particularly happy either.
Anyway, Wilkins has in his office a very special and incredible photograph; Photograph 51. This photograph was taken eight months ago by Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling, and was one of the best x-ray photographs of DNA in the lab. Gosling brought the photograph to Wilkins that month.
Wilkins, in an act so incredibly brazen, breaking all standards of professional conduct, hands Watson the photograph. A PhD Student showing data to another colleague in the same department is one thing; showing data to another researcher, in another department, without the knowledge of the people who created the data is quite another!
Photograph 51: One of the most important photographs in the history of DNA.
Things move quite quickly after that. According to Watson, he instantly realised that the photograph showed a helix. Crick agreed. By 4th February, they are building their model. On the 8th February, Wilkins agrees to join the model building attempts on the 8th February - stating that he will begin once Franklin had left King's College for a new job opportunity. In the next few days, Watson and Crick also managed to get hold of the Medical Research Committee's report, which lists all the work that all the scientists in the MRC have successfully conducted. This also becomes invaluable in their model building. How they got the report is still debated.
The model was finished on Saturday 7th March, and the work was published in Nature on 25th April. It was titled 'Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids' with the authors listed as James Watson and Francis Crick. They also discuss the 'genetical' implications of this discovery.
James Watson and Francis Crick with their model.
Now lets skip to 16th April 1958. Chelsea. Rosalind Franklin at the age of 37 dies of Ovarian Cancer. Her death certificate states 'Spinster', although to be fair, it also states 'Research Scientist. A few years later, at the Nobel Prize Ceremony in 1962. Wilkins, Crick and Watson also receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Rosalind Franklin receives nothing.
So it is important to note that now the Nobel Prize committee does not give out awards posthumously. However, in 1962, this rule was not in effect. What WAS in place is a rule preventing the splitting of a Nobel Prize more than three ways.
But two could have the prize for Physiology or Medicine, whilst the other two could have had it for Chemistry. Nominations were in place for both awards for several years.
I still find it weird and infuriating that we ,in our student lives and in our professional careers are rightfully and strictly warned against plagiarism and yet it is still not fully acknowledged that the discovery of the double helix was at least partially made possible by a brazen act of intellectual theft.
The photo was shown to James Watson without consent from Franklin and yet, instead of getting stripped and reprimanded for this unethical and backhanded act, he gets a Nobel Prize!
I'm not sure Raymond Gosling is particularly innocent in this either. After all, he's the one that showed the photo to Wilkins in the first place. Having been a PhD student, I understand the difficult position he was in. Wilkins was ultimately his first supervisor and he may have felt some loyalty towards him. He may also have felt that Wilkins could offer fresh opinions and suggestions on how to proceed. He also did have a right to show his data to Wilkins- who was assistant head of the department.
But I can say that if I had shown another colleague images of our data without my supervisor's consent, she would absolutely hit the roof.
Ultimately, Watson and Crick DID make the first working model of DNA. They did work for it, and it is right that they receive credit for it. But the problem is, Franklin's discovery made their model possible. What isn't right is that they, along with Maurice Wilkins receive almost all the credit.
To make things even more awful, Watson then makes remarks completely disparaging her personality and appearance.
Watson a referred to Rosalind Franklin as 'Rosy', a nickname derived from the wrong pronunciation of her name that she never used. Rosalind pronounced her name as 'Ros-lind' and would only accept 'Ros' from friends and family. For Watson to be calling her Rosy in professional capacities shows a blatant lack of respect.
He also describes her 'not unattractive' but she would be 'quite stunning' if she only took a 'mild interest' in clothes. Now I know I'm applying modern standards to a 1950s environment but if I'm going to the lab to make a life-changing discovery, I would not be taking much of an interest in the clothes I throw on to wear under my lab coat.
Then Watson describes her as humourless and difficult to work with.
She certainly was self-confident and forthright. After pointing out errors in someone's measurements at the Royal Institution meeting at the age of 26, she was described as 'abrupt and peremptory' by Harry Carlisle, the head of crystallography at Birkbeck College- although he did admit she was right.
I roll my eyes at the thought of a confident woman, dedicated and good at her work being called humourless and difficult to work with. Even now, working women who show dedication and confidence are often disparaged, and called 'aggressive'. The word that still annoys me is 'outspoken'. No, I'm the normal amount of spoken thank you very much.
Rosalind Franklin also was capable of showing some humour - in 1952 she wrote a notice on the back of a postcard, announcing the death of the DNA helix and inviting Maurice Wilkins to speak out in memory. At this time, Wilkins was convinced the DNA was indeed a helix; Franklin was not yet sure; to her mind, her data was not yet absolute. As an experimental scientist, she had been taught not to conclude anything until the data gave absolutely no doubt. The data was giving evidence that suggested alternative forms as well as the helix.
The death notice of DNA.
So the question remains, could she have done it herself?
We will never know for certain.
But I think yes. She was an expert in x-ray crystallography and there is evidence suggesting that she had already thought of a double helix structure. Her notebooks are full of notes dating to February 1953 where she is starting to consider a two-chain helix. On 23rd February, she concluded a double helix. She hadn't got the full structure mapped out yet but she was tantalizingly close.
After her time at King's College and before her untimely death, Rosalind Franklin kept working. She later discovered structure of Tobacco Mosaic Virus, a highly infectious virus that results in stunted growth and yields of tomatoes, peppers and tobacco. It was believed that by understanding the structure of TMV, a better understanding of how viruses infect would be gained. TMV was essential to the field of virology. Before her illness and death she was also working on Polio and was close to discovering its structure as well. So, Rosalind Franklin is arguably just as important to our understanding of viruses as she was to our understanding of DNA.
So my final thoughts:
1. The treatment of Rosalind Franklin is still relevant to female scientists today.
2. Rosalind Franklin was ultimately a lot more than the forgotten discover of DNA.
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