Rosalind Franklin

Rosalind Franklin was a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose measurements clarified DNA’s structure and advanced research on coal and viruses.

Photo 51: An X-ray diffraction image of DNA’s B form, produced by Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling in 1952. Its cross-shaped diffraction pattern supplied strong evidence for DNA’s helical structure.
X-ray crystallography: A method that infers atomic and molecular structures from the diffraction of X-rays by ordered samples. It was Franklin’s principal tool for measuring DNA, coal, and virus structures.
Raymond Gosling: A British physicist who worked with Rosalind Franklin on X-ray diffraction studies of DNA. He made Photo 51 under Franklin’s supervision and collaborated on DNA research.
Newnham College, Cambridge: A constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded for the education of women. Franklin studied chemistry there before beginning her research career.
Double-helix model: The model of DNA as two complementary strands wound around a shared axis. Franklin’s measurements supplied critical constraints on the model’s dimensions and form.
DNA: A molecule that stores hereditary information in most organisms. Franklin’s measurements helped establish DNA’s dimensions and helical form.
X-ray diffraction: The scattering of X-rays by matter into patterns shaped by its internal structure. The DNA patterns Franklin recorded encoded distances and symmetry within the molecule.
Maurice Wilkins: A British physicist who studied DNA by X-ray diffraction at King’s College London. His interactions with Franklin became central to the institutional conflict over their DNA research.
Physical chemistry: The study of how physical principles govern chemical systems and reactions. Her approach to molecular structure drew on quantitative physical chemistry.
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962: The 1962 Nobel Prize awarded to Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins for discoveries about DNA’s molecular structure. Franklin had died in 1958 and was not eligible for a posthumous award.

Linked from 31 pages