Fun Facts About Rosalind Franklin
- Rosalind Franklin's student Raymond Gosling actually took the famous Photo 51 of DNA, and Maurice Wilkins showed it to James Watson without Franklin's permission.[1][3][4]
- As a practical joke on Maurice Wilkins, Franklin and Gosling wrote a mock funeral notice in 1952 announcing the "death" of the DNA helix.[1]
- Before DNA, Franklin studied the holes in coal, work that helped predict coal's performance for wartime devices such as gas masks and earned her a Cambridge PhD.[1]
- Franklin built a five-foot model of a virus for the 1958 Brussels world's fair out of materials including table tennis balls and plastic bicycle handlebar grips.[1]
- In 2019 the European Space Agency named its ExoMars rover Rosalind Franklin.[1]
- As a young child, Franklin refused to believe in God and asked her mother, "Well, anyhow, how do you know He isn't She?"[1]
- Rosalind Franklin was alive at the same time as Sarah Bernhardt — their lives overlapped for 3 years (1920–1923).[1][2][5][6]
- Rosalind Franklin and Francisco Goya died on the same day of the year, April 16.[1][2][7][8]
Rosalind Elsie Franklin was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer. Her work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. Although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime, Franklin's contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were largely unrecognised during her life, for which Franklin has been variously referred to as the "wronged heroine", the "dark lady of DNA", the "forgotten heroine", a "feminist icon", and the "Sylvia Plath of molecular biology". James Watson believed that, had she not died, Franklin would have been awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[1]
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Questions About Rosalind Franklin
When was Rosalind Franklin born?
Rosalind Franklin was born on July 25, 1920, and died on April 16, 1958.
How old was Rosalind Franklin at death?
Rosalind Franklin was born on July 25, 1920, and died on April 16, 1958, at age 37.
What was Rosalind Franklin known for?
Rosalind Franklin was known for: Key to discovering DNA's structure. Rosalind Elsie Franklin was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer. Her work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. Although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime, Franklin's contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were largely unrecognised during her life, for which Franklin has been variously referred to as the "wronged heroine", the "dark lady of DNA", the "forgotten heroine", a "feminist icon", and the "Sylvia Plath of molecular biology". James Watson believed that, had she not died, Franklin would have been awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Who was alive at the same time as Rosalind Franklin?
Rosalind Franklin's closest contemporary was Winston Churchill. Their lives overlapped for 38 years.
Sources
- Rosalind Franklin — Wikipedia. Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Rosalind Franklin (Q7474) — Wikidata
- James Watson — Wikipedia
- James Watson (Q83333) — Wikidata
- Sarah Bernhardt — Wikipedia
- Sarah Bernhardt (Q4605) — Wikidata
- Francisco Goya — Wikipedia
- Francisco Goya (Q5432) — Wikidata
- Portrait: Rosalind Franklin.jpg — Wikimedia Commons. MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CC BY-SA 4.0