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Rosalind Franklin Essay

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Rosalind Franklin

When you think of who discovered DNA, the names Watson and Cricke may come to mind. In reality, many other scientists' research lead to their discovery. That information was not necessarily given freely. When Watson saw a picture of DNA taken by Rosalind Franklin a "light bulb" went on. It was then that he realized exactly what it looked like and was able to publish his results. Unfortunately, Rosalind did not offer this information to Watson and Cricke. It was stolen from her. She did not receive credit for the work she had done with DNA and therefore has gone unnoticed in most biology classes.

On July 25 1920, Rosalind Elsie Franklin was born in London England. She …show more content…

Following her time at Cambridge, Franklin spent three years (1947-1950) at the Laboratoire Central des Sevices Chemiques de L'Etat in Paris where she learned techniques for x-ray diffraction. (Maire, 1) In this process, " the location of atoms in a crystal can be precisely mapped by looking at the image of the crystal under and x-ray beam." (Ardell, 1) Rosalind Franklin soon became known as the world's best crystallographer. (Parshall, 72) This would become vital to her career in the future since it was the technique used to get a general idea of DNA's shape.

Shortly after this training in Paris, Franklin returned to England as a research associate. She had been offered a position in a laboratory at King's College in Cambridge and would eventually produce her most influential work there. (Maire, 1) She was asked to join a team of Scientists studying living cells and was assigned to work with a graduate student, Maurice Wilkins, on DNA. (Sayre, 1) When she joined the project, Maurice Wilkins was on vacation. When he returned, he immediately assumed that she was merely an assistant. (Sayre, 1) In fact, Franklin alone was given the task of determining the elusive structure of DNA. Even though she was thought of as an assistant, she was his peer. (Ardell, 1) This

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