In this full and balanced biography Maddox tells the powerful story of a remarkably single-minded, forthright and tempestuous young woman who was airbrushed out of the greatest scientific discovery of the twentieth century.ġ.2" H x 7.9" L x 5.2" W (0. She made landmark contributions that led to. At 30, she was a recognized authority who switched from carbon to DNA research and, a few years later, to nucleic-acid-protein complexes known as viruses. Franklin’s part was forgotten until she was caricatured in Watson’s book The Double Helix. Rosalind Franklin’s short scientific carrier produced brilliant contributions to the structure of carbon, DNA, and helical and spherical viruses. In 1962 Wilkins, Crick and Watson were awarded the Nobel Prize. Five years later, Rosalind died of ovarian cancer. With the aid of these, plus their own knowledge, Watson and Crick discovered the structure of the molecule that genes are composed of-DNA. Franklin’s unpublished data and crucial photograph of DNA had already been seen by her competitors at the Cambridge University lab. In March 1953 Maurice Wilkins of King’s College London, announced the departure of his obstructive colleague, Rosalind Franklin to rival Cavendish Laboratory scientist, Francis Crick. “ was the unacknowledged heroine of DNA, the Sylvia Plath of molecular biology.”-The Economist
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