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"[Flatow]-...You mentioned Rosalind Franklin, and she's been a woman of controversy over your career, since the discovery, has she not been? You - last time you were - almost 10 years ago when you were here with me last time, you said that she actually got in your way of discovering the actual structure of DNA. I think your exact words were: we could have done it faster without her. 1953; Watson in his Laboratory.
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What Watson said in Nature, exhibits his slight hatred of Franklin. He implies that people like her should focus on their aims, rather than make their way into other's goals and receive credit.
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The conversation to the left, is of an Interview from NPR news talking to James Watson about his book. They later discussed about Rosalind Franklin and Watson's response to Flatow's (interviewer) question.
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PARIS, FRANCE; 23 April 1993 in Paris; Watson standing in front of a DNA Structure with base pairs written next to the sketch.
"Rosalind Franklin was a very intelligent woman, but she really had no reason for believing that DNA was particularly important. She was trained in physical chemistry. I don't think she'd ever spent any length of time with people who thought DNA was important. And she certainly didn't talk to Maurice [Wilkins] or to John Randall, then the professor at Kings." |
"Franklin's X-Ray photographs were much sought after by Watson and Crick. Watson felt Franklin was "incompetent in interpreting X-Ray photographs". And he felt he could make better use of her data. Wilkins was an easy pawn. Pushed away by Franklin and "seeking sympathy for his situation, he was easily milked by Watson and Crick for Information" [Creager] (Image from www.bbhc.com)
1953-now; pictures of the three scientists, Crick, Watson, and Winkins. |
This is the full article. Click the file to open.
This quote from the article shows that Watson did not really care about Rosalind's work; he just was very disrespectful of her. Watson also thought Franklin was so unintelligent that she must have been "not knowing of what to do" with her findings.
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Discovering the different forms of DNA:
Franklin and her student, Raymond Gosling, discovered two different types of DNA. They took pictures to display the “A” form and “B” form, as shown below.
The Human Genome Project:
Rosalind Franklin, as some say, started the thought revolution of DNA structural research. Her impressive images of the DNA were leaked by a fellow scientist, Maurice Wilkins. He shared Franklin's DNA images with Watson and Crick, to link the untied ends of DNA science. Her images contributed enormously to the Human Genome Project.
(More is explicated below.)
The timeline below is the evolution of DNA/Genome research. The Human Genome Project really assisted in helping society gain a better understanding of human bodies and genetic composition. This established an advancement towards other scientific fields significantly.
(More is explicated below.)
The timeline below is the evolution of DNA/Genome research. The Human Genome Project really assisted in helping society gain a better understanding of human bodies and genetic composition. This established an advancement towards other scientific fields significantly.
"The Human Genome Project (HGP) was one of the great feats of exploration in history - an inward voyage of discovery rather than an outward exploration of the planet or the cosmos; an international research effort to sequence and map all of the genes - together known as the genome - of members of our species, Homo sapiens. Completed in April 2003, the HGP gave us the ability, for the first time, to read nature's complete genetic blueprint for building a human being."
~ National Human Genome Research Institute
Timeline reanimated from mun.ca timeline.
"She would have solved it, but it would have come out in stages. For the feminists, however, she has become a doomed heroine, and they have seized upon her as an icon, which is not, of course, her fault. Rosalind was not a feminist in the ordinary sense, but she was determined to be treated equally like anybody else."
~ Sir Aaron Klug
'Rosalind Franklin and the Discovery of the Structure of DNA'. Cited in Brenda Maddox, The Dark Lady of DNA (2002), 326.
She was given credit for her intelligence, but not for her actual contributions to the research of Human DNA. The quotes above, which was taken from Sir Aaron Klug, states that Rosalind Franklin would have been known to the science field as an idol rather than a women behind the scenes of DNA structure research.
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