The Discovery of DNA
On 25 April 1953, the prestigious British journal ‘Nature’ published the famous article entitled ‘A Structure for Deoxyribonucleic Acid, signed by James Watson and Francis Crick. Although it occupied only one page, it revolutionized the world of science in those years, because it described the molecule that stores and transmits hereditary information in all living organisms. The authors of the work achieved great popularity and recognition and in 1962, they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology. However, despite such remarkable success, the brilliance of triumph hid a pitiful history of deception, ambition, jealousy, and above all, an appreciable dose of misogyny and machismo.
The April 25th article does not recognize that Rosalind Franklin, a remarkable scientist whose contribution remained unjustly in the shadows for more than twenty years, played a decisive role. Thanks to the efforts of various historians, today things have changed and this scholar's participation in one of the most momentous advances in 20th century science is now known. But the question remains: why did it take so long to recognize Franklin's role?
In 1950, when scholars understood that figuring out the architecture of DNA was paramount to understanding biology, Rosalind Franklin was a bright young physicist, graduate and doctoral student at Cambridge, who had just spent three years in France learning a complex specialty: the use of X-ray crystallography.
Franklin joined King's College London as part of a research project to map the molecule. She soon managed to obtain a key photo, later considered among the most transcendent achieved to date, which showed the helical structure of the molecule. This photo, via lab partner Maurice Wilkins, came into the hands of James Watson and Francis Crick, who managed to complete their research and publish the celebrated and award-winning double-propeller model.
After Franklin's death in 1958, her work was, belittled and ignored for a long time. When the Nobel Prize was awarded, the three winners, Watson, Crick and Wilkins gave lectures, but did not mention Rosalind Franklin.
Sources:
https://mujeresconciencia.com/2016/04/25/5734/
https://editorial.usach.cl/content/recordando-rosalind-franklin
* Carolina Martínez Pulido: También en la cocina de la ciencia. Cinco grandes científicas en el pensamiento biológico del siglo XX. Editado por el Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de La Laguna, 2000.