Rosalind Franklin: The Twisted Threads of Truth
When you pick up the memoir of a Nobel Prize-winning scientist detailing a groundbreaking discovery, you expect to be inspired. You anticipate admiration for the brilliance and perseverance of those involved. What you don’t expect is to finish the book with a deep sense of anger and resentment toward its author. Yet that’s exactly what happened when I read ' The Double Helix' by James Watson, his account of the discovery of DNA’s structure. Instead of inspiration, I was left with a heavy heart for Rosalind Franklin, who should have been known as a co-discoverer along with Maurice Wilkins, Watson, and Francis Crick. Rosalind Franklin © Novartis Foundation Born on July 25, 1920, in Notting Hill, London, Rosalind Franklin grew up in an affluent Anglo-Jewish family that valued education for both men and women. A brilliant and independent child, she excelled at St. Paul’s Girls’ School, where she developed a strong passion for science. She went on to study chemistry a...