DNA's overlooked hero: Who is Rosalind Franklin?

Rosalind Elsie Franklin was born on July 25, 1920, in Notting Hill, London, as the second of five children of Ellis and Muriel Franklin. Her parents came from highly educated and socially conscious Jewish families, and they were very devoted to both their religion and their instinct to help their people who were oppressed by Nazi Germany. While her father, Ellis Arthur Franklin, continued to protect the considerable family fortune, he also continued to do banking.

Rosalind was an extraordinary child. Because she always spent time with her three brothers, she was interested in all kinds of games that boys were interested in and loved competition more than anything else. She didn't play with dolls like her peers, she was constantly drawing, inventing tools, and writing. Rosalind would use these skills to make molecular models and equipment in the future.

Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 1920 – 16 April 1958) was a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid), 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 unrecognized 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".

Ellis Arthur Franklin's uncle Herbert Samuel, her aunt Helen Caroline, and her uncle Hugh Franklin served in the British cabinet, each in separate positions. Every Friday, when the family came together for dinner, Rosalind would ask questions, especially from her aunt, to learn about the conditions of the period and closely follow the studies on science.

Rosalind was enrolled at St Paul's School for Girls, one of the rare girls' schools in England at the time that offered chemistry and physics courses when she was 11 years old, and she stood out with her diligence and intelligence, especially her interest in science, Latin and sports. Talented in cricket and rowing, Rosalind's only deficiency was in music lessons. She also improved herself in French and German.

Her father wanted Rosalind to become a social worker working in aid organizations, just like her family and relatives who escaped from the Nazis had been doing for years. But Rosalind had an incorrigible interest in physics and chemistry from an early age. After endless insistence to her father, Ellis Franklin allowed her daughter to attend Newnham College in Cambridge. Thus, in 1938, Rosalind began her academic career, in which she made discoveries that would make her name known to the whole world.

Rosalind, who started studying chemistry here, won the Second Class Medal of Honor when she was only in the second grade. This alone was enough success for a university graduate to apply for a job.

Following college, Rosalind took a job with the British Coal Evaluation Research Association (BCURA) in aid of the National Service Campaign. At a time when there were still remnants of the war days, Rosalind once again encountered the difficulties of being a Jew in BCURA, which was formed by refugees escaping from the Nazis, and shared the memories and troubles of the fugitives and refugees. The work she carried out here on coal pores and the absorption structure of coal would enable her to receive her doctorate from Cambridge University in 1945.

During her years at Cambridge, her closest friend was a Frenchwoman named Adrienne Weill. Rosalind Franklin, who worked on the "chemistry of coal" in Paris with Weil, who worked as a chemist, studied the diffraction of X-rays in Paris, where she stayed until the autumn of 1950, and examined the structure of the atoms seen when the atoms of a substance are viewed with X-rays. After all this work, she made valuable contributions to the fields of coking coal industry and atomic technology by investigating the structure changes caused by graphite in carbons exposed to heat.

Weill would play major roles in both Rosalind's admiration for French culture and the course of her academic life. The biggest of these was undoubtedly that, during a scientific conference in 1946, she introduced her to Marcel Mathieu, the president of the French National Center for Scientific Research, an association that includes almost all scientific organizations supported by the French government. Thanks to Mathieu, Rosalind got a job interview with Jacques Mering, head of the Central Laboratory of the State Chemical Service, and moved to France to work for him.

Mering, an X-ray crystal scientist, was testing X-rays on rayon and promptly showed his work to Rosalind. Rosalind went one step further and blended the knowledge she had learned with the techniques taught by Mering and examined the physical changes that coal molecules undergo as they are converted into graphite. Many of her later published papers on coal chemistry would be based on her work there.

When she returned to England in 1950, her first task was to research X-ray diffraction of proteins and lipids, but since she was an expert in this field, she received an idea from John Randall, one of the managers of Turner & Newall, where she was doing research, that she should work on DNA. This would change her life.

Rosalind, who loved traveling and traveling, went on short trips every weekend during her 4 years in Paris, during which she communicated with many scientists and made close friends. By communicating with people she didn't know in the hotels she stayed in, she managed to learn many languages, although not very well. Those who talked about Rosalind mostly talked about her modest and humble personality. During her trips, she preferred to stay in third-class rooms rather than first-class rooms like her family. She also soon began to reject the financial aid her family constantly sent her.

Already heavily influenced by French culture, Rosalind quickly mastered French and French folklore. She preferred the French culture, which adopted an egalitarian principle, to the conservative and imperialist British culture. Although she thought of never leaving here, she returned to England in 1951 upon the intense insistence of her family, especially Dorothy Hodgkin. She would spend the rest of her life here, except for her travels abroad.

She started working as a research assistant at King's College MRC Biophysics Unit. Initially, she was involved in X-ray diffraction research on lipids and proteins, but later she was involved in DNA studies. Together with her student Raymond Gosling and her colleague Maurice Wilkins, they showed that DNA has two forms. This was a tremendous invention that would catapult them onto the stage of history.

One of these was dry DNA, called form A, and showed that the DNA took a short and flattened shape in a form with lower water content (about 20% water, 75% relative humidity). The B form was wet DNA, and the nucleic acid contained more water in this structure (approximately 40%, 90% relative humidity) and appeared to be more irregular and longer in structure. The discoveries included the first clues to the helical structure of DNA.

In 1952, Rosalind and Gosling managed to obtain more important findings about the structure of DNA by applying the Patterson technique to the DNA photographs they obtained. While Gosling left the research to finish his thesis, Wilkins began to expertly approach the helical structure of DNA at the King's College Research Institute in England, together with Rosalind Franklin, with the use of the X-ray tube and microcamera she had ordered, which were first focused and produced under the guidance of the latest technological developments. Everything they found pointed to the double helix structure of DNA; but they did not have the data to prove this.

On January 30, 1953, Watson came to Rosalind with Linus Pauling's DNA sample containing false information. After a fierce argument with Rosalind, she found Rosalind's rival, Wilkins, who was also her colleague. Without permission, Wilkins showed Watson the sample called "Photo 51", one of the most important DNA images taken by Rosalind. What Watson showed them in return was Pauling's faulty work. Watson returned to Cambridge with more than he bargained for.

Rosalind completed her research in February 1953 and decided to transfer to Birkbeck College. Immediately afterward, the MRC Biophysics Unit found it appropriate to hand over many DNA research reports, including Rosalind's work, to Francis Crick. On February 28, 1953, Francis Crick and James Watson announced that they had discovered the secret of life, and in April of the same year, they publicly announced their research revealing the double helix structure of DNA. Unfortunately, they did not feel the need to cite Rosalind Franklin and the photographs she took, which made their discovery possible.

While on a business trip to America in 1956, Rosalind became suspicious of a lump in her abdomen. Following the operations, the presence of two tumors was detected and Rosalind was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Rosalind took a break from her studies and spent time with her family and old friends. However, her mother's uncontrollable sadness and non-stop crying were negatively affecting the treatment of the disease. Rosalind returned and took her place at the head of her team, although she was not as active as before. Her articles and discoveries continued to be published, seven in 1956 and six in 1957. This time, the group was continuing studies on the polio virus.

At the end of 1957, Rosalind's pain became unbearable and she was taken to the Royal Marsden Hospital. She would not have been able to witness the long and endless debates about who was responsible for the discovery of the helical structure of DNA, nor would she have been able to personally participate in these discussions, and perhaps would not have been able to see the Nobel Prize that would have belonged to him be awarded in 1962, without Crick and Watson mentioning Rosalind's name.

The cause of cancer was thought to be largely due to long-term exposure to X-ray radiation, but this was never fully known.

Rosalind Elsie Franklin died on April 16, 1958, at the age of 38. Maurice Wilkins; While Rosalind Franklin's name was mentioned only twice at the 1962 Nobel Prizes, when she received the award for the analysis of DNA structure together with Crick and Watson, Crick and Watson did not mention her even once.

Since 2003, an award and a traditional lecture have been given under the name of the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Prize and Lecture. Along with the medal, the winner is given a prize of 30,000 pounds sterling (approximately 83,000 TL).