Rosalind Franklin at Work
You all know who Rosalind Franklin was, right? Well, the Bank of England is about to issue a
new 50 pound note, and it is running a contest to determine who goes on it, and
I want you to vote for Rosalind. Whoever
is honored in this way must be/have been (a), real (Not David Copperfield, for
instance), (b) dead (no, you can’t nominate Michelle Obama), and (c) have done
something good for humanity (thus excluding Hitler and Stalin, for example). I suggest that you go here
and nominate Franklin.
Rosalind Franklin took the X-ray photographs that tipped
off Watson and Crick as to the structure of DNA. She is mentioned in a dismissive way by
Watson as “Rosy” in Watson’s snotty – but engrossing – little book “The Double
Helix”. Most people assume that she
would have shared in the Nobel Prize but for the fact that she died, of ovarian
cancer, before it was awarded. However,
given the sexist attitude of the day, that is by no means certain.
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