Rosalind Franklin

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Lore & Background

Franklin graduated in 1941 with a degree in natural sciences from Newnham College, Cambridge, and then enrolled for a PhD in physical chemistry under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, the 1920 Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. Disappointed by Norrish's lack of enthusiasm, she took up a research position under the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The research on coal helped Franklin earn a PhD from Cambridge in 1945. Moving to Paris in 1947 as a chercheur (postdoctoral researcher) under Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État, she became an accomplished X-ray crystallographer. After joining King's College London in 1951 as a research associate, Franklin discovered some key properties of DNA, which eventually facilitated the correct description of the double helix structure of DNA. Owing to disagreement with her director, John Randall, and her colleague Maurice Wilkins, Franklin moved to Birkbeck College in 1953. Franklin is best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA while at King's College London, particularly Photo 51, taken by her student Raymond Gosling, which led to the discovery of the DNA double helix for which Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. While Gosling actually took the famous Photo 51, Wilkins showed it to Watson without Franklin's permission. Working under John Desmond Bernal, Franklin led pioneering work at Birkbeck on the molecular structures of viruses. On the day before she was to unveil the structure of tobacco mosaic virus at an international fair in Brussels, Franklin died of ovarian cancer at age 37 in 1958. Her team member Aaron Klug continued her research, winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1982.

Reader's Guide

Rosalind Franklin's significance lies in her foundational X-ray crystallography work that directly enabled the discovery of the DNA double helix, yet she received no public credit during her lifetime. Her Photo 51, taken by her student Raymond Gosling, was shown to James Watson by Maurice Wilkins without Franklin's permission, and that image was critical to Watson and Crick's model. Franklin's contributions to the understanding of coal and viruses were recognized in her lifetime, but her role in DNA was largely unrecognised until after her death. She has been variously referred to as the 'wronged heroine', the 'dark lady of DNA', the 'forgotten heroine', a 'feminist icon', and the 'Sylvia Plath of molecular biology'. James Watson believed that, had she not died, ideally, Franklin would have been awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Her legacy includes not only the DNA story but also pioneering work on virus structures at Birkbeck College, which her colleague Aaron Klug continued, leading to his Nobel Prize. Franklin's life and career highlight issues of gender and recognition in science, and her story remains a cautionary tale about the politics of scientific discovery.

Did You Know?

• Franklin's middle name 'Elsie' was in memory of her uncle Hugh Franklin's first wife, who died in the 1918 flu pandemic.
• At age six, her aunt described her as 'alarmingly clever' because she spent all her time doing arithmetic for pleasure.
• Franklin's father asked her to give her university scholarship to a deserving refugee student.
• The famous Photo 51 was actually taken by her student Raymond Gosling, not by Franklin herself.
• Franklin died of ovarian cancer at age 37 on the day before she was to unveil the structure of tobacco mosaic virus at an international fair in Brussels.

A Career Forged in Coal, X-Rays, and Viruses

Rosalind Franklin's scientific path was anything but linear. After earning her natural sciences degree from Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1941, she initially pursued a PhD in physical chemistry under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, the 1920 Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. Finding his enthusiasm lacking—she wrote that he made her despise him completely—she pivoted in 1942 to the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA), where her work on coal structure, including discovering the relationship between fine constrictions in coal pores and permeability, ultimately secured her Cambridge doctorate in 1945. A move to Paris in 1947, as a chercheur (postdoctoral researcher) under Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État, transformed her into a skilled X-ray crystallographer. By 1951, at King's College London as a research associate, she was probing the molecular architecture of DNA, uncovering properties that would prove essential to describing its double-helix form. After a fraught relationship with director John Randall and colleague Maurice Wilkins pushed her to Birkbeck College in 1953, she turned her crystallographic expertise to viruses under John Desmond Bernal, producing pioneering structural work on organisms like the tobacco mosaic virus. Her contributions spanned coal, graphite, RNA, and viruses, yet it was her DNA research that would define her legacy.

Photo 51 and the Double Helix

Franklin's most celebrated contribution to science came from her X-ray diffraction work on DNA at King's College London. The image now iconic in the history of molecular biology—Photo 51—was actually captured by her student Raymond Gosling, yet it was Franklin's experimental design and analytical insight that gave the photograph its scientific meaning. The diffraction pattern revealed critical structural properties of the DNA molecule that made the correct description of its double-helix configuration possible. Tragically, the credit for that breakthrough went elsewhere. In 1962, Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the DNA double helix. Franklin, who had died in 1958, was not eligible for the award. Compounding the injustice, Wilkins had shown Photo 51 to Watson without Franklin's knowledge or consent. The episode cemented her reputation as one of the most overlooked figures in twentieth-century science, a woman whose data became the foundation of a discovery that bore other names.

A Legacy of Injustice and Reckoning

During her lifetime, Franklin's research on coal and viruses earned her genuine scientific respect, yet her pivotal role in elucidating DNA's structure went largely unacknowledged. Over the decades, she has been described by various epithets—the "wronged heroine," the "dark lady of DNA," the "forgotten heroine," a "feminist icon," and even the "Sylvia Plath of molecular biology"—each label reflecting a different dimension of the grievance surrounding her story. James Watson himself acknowledged that, had Franklin survived, she would ideally have received a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Her death from ovarian cancer at the age of thirty-seven on 16 April 1958, just one day before she was scheduled to present the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus at an international fair in Brussels, added a layer of poignancy to her absence from the 1962 Nobel ceremony. Her Birkbeck colleague Aaron Klug later continued the virus-structure research she had pioneered, earning the 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry—a posthumous echo of the recognition Franklin herself never received.

Roots in Notting Hill and a Mind for Numbers

Rosalind Elsie Franklin entered the world on 25 July 1920 at 50 Chepstow Villas, Notting Hill, London, into an affluent and influential British Jewish family. Her father, Ellis Arthur Franklin, was a politically liberal London merchant banker who taught electricity, magnetism, and the history of the Great War at the Working Men's College, eventually rising to vice principal. Her mother was Muriel Frances Waley. Franklin, the eldest daughter and second of five children, displayed extraordinary aptitude for arithmetic from the age of six—her aunt Mamie (Helen Bentwich) described her as 'alarmingly clever' and noted she spent all her time doing arithmetic for pleasure. At age nine she entered Lindores School for Young Ladies in Sussex, and at 11 she went to St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith, one of the few girls' schools in London that taught physics and chemistry. There she excelled in science, Latin, and sports, learned German, and became fluent in French. She topped her classes, won annual awards, and passed her matriculation in 1938 with six distinctions, winning a scholarship for university—the School Leaving Exhibition of £30 a year for three years, plus £5 from her grandfather. Her only educational weakness was in music, for which the school music director, composer Gustav Holst, once called upon her mother to enquire whether she might have suffered from hearing problems or tonsillitis.