Questions about Rosalind Franklin
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What was Rosalind Franklin's contribution to the discovery of DNA structure?
Franklin produced high-quality X-ray diffraction images of DNA, identified the two forms of the molecule (A and B), determined that the phosphate groups were on the outside of the structure, and established the 34 Angstrom repeat distance. Her crystallographic data, including Photo 51 taken by her student Raymond Gosling, and a December 1952 MRC report containing her calculations, were used by Francis Crick and James Watson in building their 1953 double-helix model.
Why did Rosalind Franklin not receive a Nobel Prize for DNA?
Franklin died of ovarian cancer on the 16th of April 1958, four years before the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Crick, Watson, and Wilkins. Nobel rules in effect until 1974 prohibited posthumous awards unless the nominee was alive when nominated before the 1st of February of the award year. General scientific acceptance of the double helix did not solidify until the late 1950s, so nominations for the work came only in 1960, 1961, and 1962.
What is Photo 51 and who took it?
Photo 51 is an X-ray diffraction image of B-form DNA taken by Raymond Gosling, Franklin's graduate student, under her direction at King's College London. Maurice Wilkins showed the image to James Watson in January 1953 without Franklin's knowledge. Watson and Crick described the image as among the most important data informing their double-helix model.
What work did Rosalind Franklin do at Birkbeck College after leaving King's?
At Birkbeck, Franklin led pioneering research into the molecular structures of viruses using X-ray crystallography, focusing especially on the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). Her team published findings showing that TMV's protein coat consists of helical protein molecules, and that its RNA runs along the inner surface of the hollow virus. She also initiated work on the polio virus before her death, which her colleague Aaron Klug later completed.
How did Rosalind Franklin's early career and training shape her scientific approach?
Franklin earned a doctorate from Cambridge in 1945 based on her study of coal porosity at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association. She then worked in Paris under X-ray crystallographer Jacques Mering from 1947, learning to apply diffraction techniques to amorphous substances. This combination of physical chemistry and crystallographic precision defined her methodical, data-first approach to the DNA work at King's College London.
What was Aaron Klug's connection to Rosalind Franklin?
Aaron Klug joined Franklin's research group at Birkbeck College in late 1953 and collaborated closely with her on virus structure until her death in 1958. Franklin named Klug the principal beneficiary of her will, leaving him £3,000 and her Austin car. Klug later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1982 for work directly continuing what Franklin had started, and he published a 1968 article and a 1974 paper defending and clarifying her contribution to the discovery of DNA structure.