[rosalind dna (OP)]

Rosalind Franklin, who is a first cousin to Rosalind DNA aka Sally, she was a research scientist and bio-physicist at University College, London with 3 other scientists working in the same field of crystallography diffraction X-ray research science.

She took this in 1953 and they were some of the contributing factors to her early death in 1958 at only 37, where the fact that her Single DNA Helix Structure work was taken/stolen from also all of the X-Ray work she had used caused her ovarian cancer which was discovered in 1956 by a French doctor.

I was only 4years old when she died and this is one of my main regrets is that I never met her.
Although I have always been fascinated by her work since my childhood and as I get older then I have become more aware of my family’s history mainly of my cousin.


She had 3 brothers, Roland, David, both deceased and Colin also Jennifer Glynn, who is a scientific writer too. It is her sister, who is still responsible for looking and contributing most of her photos, work as her executor which you’ll see on the Google Images site.
Her father, Ellis Franklin wanted to be a scientist but he didn’t have qualifications to be a scientist either, there was a big family row, which caused a rift between her and her father. They didn’t speak for ages

Rosalind Franklin, who discovered the single Helix DNA Structure and was a diffraction crystallographer research scientist, also her earlier work was researching into the holes into coal and the tobacco mosaic viruses before taking her first ever now In-famous Diffraction Slide 51 of the Single Helix Structure DNA photo.

Secret of photo 51

Left: the principle behind X-ray diffraction crystallography:

The photograph that Watson and Crick found invaluable in elucidating the structure of DNA is known as 'Photograph 51'. The photograph is the result of X-ray diffraction work carried out by Rosalind while at King's College London in the early part of the 1950s. X-ray diffraction crystallography involves the passing of X-rays through crystal structures. X-rays will appear as dark areas on a photographic plate, so as they are scattered by a crystal as they will produce characteristic patterns on the plate. The actual displacement/scattering of the x-rays is caused by electrons, a constituent part of all atoms, and so the patterns on the plate will be particular to the exact orientation of those atoms within the crystal structure. For this reason X-ray diffraction crystallography is an extremely powerful tool in extrapolating the structure of molecules.

 

She took this slide in 1953, but when James Watson, Frances Crick, took this Slide from Rosalind Franklin’s drawer in the lab when they recognised the Diffraction Crystallography Structure which they rejoiced at seeing by marching into their local pub, saying it was their own work.



The photograph that Watson and Crick found invaluable in elucidating the structure of DNA is known as 'Photograph 51'. The photograph is the result of X-ray diffraction work carried out by Rosalind while at King's College London in the early part of the 1950s. X-ray diffraction crystallography involves the passing of X-rays through crystal structures. X-rays will appear as dark areas on a photographic plate, so as they are scattered by a crystal they will produce characteristic patterns on the plate. The actual displacement/scattering of the x-rays is caused by electrons, a constituent part of all atoms, and so the patterns on the plate will be particular to the exact orientation of those atoms within the crystal structure. For this reason X-ray diffraction crystallography is an extremely powerful tool in extrapolating the structure of molecules
In 1962 James Watson, Frances Crick, Linus Pauling and Maurice Wilkins altogether won the Nobel Prize for Science, because it is never given posthumously (after death), so that Rosalind missed out on the much deserved credit that she should have received

This is something to think on that had Rosalind not died that she should have gained some fame for the discovery of the Double Helix Structure of DNA, even acknowledgement by winning the Nobel Prize for Science.
But this was not possible as her work was stolen out of her lab drawer at the University College, London.

Much to my family’s deep regret, when James Watson and Frances Crick brought out their autobiographies then they never credited but ignored her, for which my father sued them both when their separate autobiographies came out to correct this, which Francis Crick did in the early 1990s, but barely credited her work.

Having called her as nothing better than tea lady also named her by the one name that she detested the most, which was Rosy. Also that she was a grumpy and un-cooperative woman, but this was different from her real character as yes like me she stood her ground but was very co-operative with her fellow scientists, but they were the opposite.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/rosalind-franklin.shtml This is by her nephew, Stephen Franklin. Also I never met him either.

This is a link to the coal mosaic holes data she was involved in
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colloid

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1734694.stm

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/photo51/anat-flash.html
this is the actual slide link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_51
This is very slide 51.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_sequencing#Early_methods

http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/KR/

http://osulibrary.orst.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/dna/notes/franklin-pg01-xl.html

(This took me roughly  2 months to research and get as perfect as I can)

Any questions or answers, conmments that you may have, I will do my best to respond.

[rosalind dna (OP)]

http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/medicine/dna_double_helix/readmore.html 

Something that I discovered only recenlty was that Rosalind Frankin might have been nominated for a possible Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Maurice Wilkins
but we won't find out this until the organisation open their nomination archives,

I will follow all year through and let you know what or if anything is revealed
for the good I hope anyway that Dr Franklin was nominated. I hope that she was.

[turnipsock]

I'm not sure Maurice Wilkins won his Nobel prize for Chemistry, this was a £250,000 question on Millionaire.

[neilep]

AWESOME POST !!

Thank you for taking the time and trouble to post all this.Your pride reigns.......and I can see why...........and agree why too.

My word....your research took a while !!...are you always finding new information ?...it must feel good when you do !!

[rosalind dna (OP)]

http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?search=ss&sText=Rosalind+Franklin&LinkID=mp58704&rNo=0&role=sit

http://www.newn.cam.ac.uk/about/bio_rosalindfranklin.shtml

Hugh Arthur Frankin was a relative as well and he was a male suffragist, who had horsewhipped Winston Churchill also burnt his train carriage all to campaign for votes for womean and he was imnprisoned 6 times but he was force-fed   100 times.

http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/news/0601franklin.html

[neilep]

Oh My  !!!


Your family are revolutionary rebelling scientific peeps who just won't stand still.

THANK you for this fascinating insight into the lives of these amazing people.

[rosalind dna (OP)]

Also there is a whole University in the name of Rosalind Franklin in Chicago, USA. Also in Cambride, UK where TNS comes from there is a building in her name too. Also in Kings College, London there's a whole building dedicated called the Wilkins and Franklin buiding..
http://www.lifeindiscovery.com/whyrosalindfranklin/index.html
http://www.lifeindiscovery.com/

Does The Naked Scientists show come from this building or what do you know about it?

[rosalind dna (OP)]

Last month was the 50th Anniversary of Rosalind Frankin's death on
16th April 1958. Thinking about that it made me sad then.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/thematerialworld_20080410.shtml

[Andrew K Fletcher]

I admire your tenacity for justice. I heard a saying a few days ago as a joke with serious undertones. It went something like this: "you are a no good thieving lying treacherous backstabbing low life academic murderer " The reply was Hang on a minute, I have not murdered anyone yet. So I guess it’s not unusual for plagiarism to rear it’s ugly head from people incapable of an original thought.

Keep going and don’t let them bury this disgusting betrayal of a magnificent minded fellow researcher.
 


Wilkins, in a very revealing note to Crick on March 7, 1953, wrote: "I think you will be interested to know that our dark lady (Franklin) leaves us next week... at last the decks are clear and we can put all hands to the pumps! It won't be long now. M."
      However, Wilkins who had betrayed Franklin was now betrayed by Crick and Watson who QUICKLY sent their announcement letter on the discovery of the DNA helix to a scientific journal - without mentioning him (or Franklin).
      In a breach of confidence of some sort, the announcement letter was leaked to Wilkins who had a chance to get in his claim - still leaving out Franklin.
      A beyond-reproach-prestigious scientist who has reviewed Franklin's DNA lab books from March 1953 states that she was quite close to solving the DNA structure - actually having taken photographs of its internal structure.

Watson recently made the following obfuscatory statement recently at Harvard:
      "There's a myth which is that, you know, that Francis (Crick) and I basically stole the structure from the people at King's. I was shown Rosalind Franklin's X-ray photograph and 'Whooo! That was a helix!', and a month later, we had the structure; and [that] Wilkins should never have shown me the thing. I didn't go into the drawer and steal it. It was shown to me, and I was told the dimensions, a repeat of 34 angstroms, so, you know, I knew roughly what it meant and it was that the Franklin photograph was the key event... psychologically, it mobilized us back into action.
      "The truth is that we should have got the structure in the fall of '51 (rather than 53). There was enough data. We wouldn't have been able to say with finality that it was right because, uh, that came with Rosalind's X-ray work, that was the proof it was right... first slide. Oh, there..."
      And at that point, Franklin's Photograph 51 went up on the screen. Indeed, what else could anyone say?
http://www.thelizlibrary.org/undelete/woa/woa07-25.html

[rosalind dna (OP)]

I have the tenacity and strong will to defend my first cousin for as
long as takes or I live.
Her name is better recognised now than is Crick, Watson. Linus Pauling and Maurice Wilkins. Only Sir Aaron Klug do I have a wee bit
of respect for as he had said on live radio that went on the web
that she would have got the Double Helix DNA if her work had not
been taken. But it was stolen and no it is not myth.
Unless all of the sites I have studied have said as much also she
died from          Ovarian Cancer not cervical.
Have a look at these interesting sites/papers.

http://osulibrary.orst.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/dna/pictures/franklin-typeBphoto.jpg
(sorry I don't know how to do a hyperlink yet)

[iko]

I must thank you for the detailed information in this thread.
Even knowing the story of Rosalind Franklin's stolen discovery a bit, you made me read and search more.
Times are changing slowly, nevertheless I'm always so proud when I think of our 1986 Nobel Prize (Physiol.&Med.)
She IS a woman.

[rosalind dna (OP)]

Thank you very much, Iko and that has made me happy to know that
you know more about Rosalind Franklin. I know just where to find
the best sites. Pity she died but if she hadn't then she'd have
been 88 this year. Older than my Dad !!

[rosalind dna (OP)]

Just found this one and I think that it's sort of relevant.

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=12.0

[rosalind dna (OP)]

I have just found out that I have 3 relatives, who were involved in the Bletchley Park's Breaking of the Enigma Code in the Second World War.
It saved a lot of lives for the Merchant seamen, who brought the goods (food) to the UK and for the Royal Navy also the RAF and the Army too. It shortened the war in Europe too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bletchley_Park


Update: I have been to this wonderful place Bletchley Park and due to their fascinating, mathematical, decoding and cryptanalyalitical work.

Including the very first electronic computer that has since been rebuilt.
The Colossus machine. It was made by a brilliant Electronic telephone engineer Tommy Flowers and the main work was of course done by the Superb Mathematician
Alan Turing. Plus others.

There was a machine that the Poles made and named as the Bombe, it was another decoding machine which takes up a whole room to work as does the Colossus computer/machine, but the Enigma machine is the size of an old manual typewriter.

The WRENS did a lot of the work and kept the whole thing secret until it started to come out during the late 1980s. The rest is history but I have not forgotten any of it and I saw it nearly 2 weeks ago

WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

 

[blakestyger]

I read somewhere years ago that Linus Pauling missed the boat completely with his structure model because he omitted the vital bit that makes DNA an acid - the replaceable hydrogen.

[]

[rosalind dna (OP)]

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1954/pauling-bio.html
http://search.nobelprize.org/search/nobel/?q=Linus+Pauling&i=en

He was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry twice and the 1st time
was 1954 and then again with the other men, Crick, Watson and Wilkins in 1962.

I know that DNA is an acid - Deoxyribonucleic acid

If you can recall where you saw that article, I'd be interested in it.

[rosalind dna (OP)]

Next year, 2009 there will be a film called "the Broken Code" about Rosalind Franklin and it's
from a book by her friend Anne Sayre.
Peter Bogdanovich (sp) us the guy behind it. Yes I'll go to see it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0794266/

[stevewillie]

Right on about Rosalind. In my book "A Reality Beyond Science", I give Dr.Franklin full credit along with other major scientists who were denied recognition in the their lifetimes (p90) such as Mendel (laws of heredity), Wegener (continental drift) and Galois (algebraic theory of groups).

[neilep]

FANTASTIC news about the film and also the full credit given in the above mentioned book.

[rosalind dna (OP)]

Hi Steve that is true credit and it makes me so happy.

I will try to get your book out of the library one day.

Dr. Rosalind Franklin was an un-recognised woman in her day
but now she's more famous than the late Crick and Watson.