Who Was Rosalind Franklin?

1. London, Cambridge and coal: a scientist in wartime

Rosalind Elsie Franklin was born on 25 July 1920 in London, into a wealthy and intellectually distinguished Anglo-Jewish family. She attended St Paul's Girls' School, where she excelled at science and mathematics, and in 1938 she went to Newnham College, Cambridge, to study physical chemistry. She graduated in 1941, in the middle of the Second World War, and she gave up a research fellowship to work for the British Coal Utilisation Research Association, where she investigated the physical chemistry of coal and carbon for the war effort. The work was unglamorous, but it was important, and it formed the basis of her doctoral thesis, for which Cambridge awarded her a PhD in 1945.

Her work on coal was not a detour from science but a demonstration of her method. She was a meticulous experimentalist, patient with difficult materials, and rigorous in her interpretation of data. Her research on the structure of coals and on the changes caused by heating them proved valuable to the coking industry, and it established her reputation as a scientist who could be trusted with hard problems. She was also, by all accounts, a formidable person: direct, uncompromising and impatient with sloppy thinking, qualities that won her respect and that sometimes made her enemies.

After the war she went to Paris, where from 1947 to 1950 she worked with Jacques Méring at the State Chemical Laboratory, learning the technique of X-ray diffraction, in which X-rays are passed through a crystal or a fibre and the pattern they make is used to work out the arrangement of atoms. It was a difficult technique, requiring great skill and patience, and Franklin mastered it. When she returned to Britain in 1951, she was one of the best X-ray crystallographers in the country, and she was ready for the problem that would make her famous.

2. King's College and the race for DNA

In 1951 Franklin joined the Biophysical Laboratory at King's College London, as a research fellow, to work on the structure of DNA. Very little was known about DNA at the time, although it was suspected to be the molecule that carried genetic information. Two groups were working on the problem in Britain: the King's group, led by Maurice Wilkins, and a group at Cambridge, consisting of James Watson, an American biologist, and Francis Crick, a British physicist. The two groups were supposed to be working separately, but the race between them was intense, and the relationship between Franklin and Wilkins, who had expected to lead the DNA work himself, was difficult from the start.

Franklin's contribution was to apply X-ray diffraction to DNA fibres with a rigour that no one else had managed. She discovered the density of DNA, and she established that the molecule existed in two forms, which she called A and B, and that the B form, which appears when DNA is wet, had a helical structure. Her X-ray photographs of the B form were far clearer than anything produced before, and they contained the evidence that would solve the structure. The most famous of them, known as Photograph 51, was taken in May 1952 by Franklin and her doctoral student Raymond Gosling, and it shows a clear X shape, the characteristic pattern of a helix, with the measurements that would allow the structure to be worked out.

Franklin herself was cautious. She did not want to build a model of DNA until she had more evidence, and she was working through the mathematics of the A form when the Cambridge group made their breakthrough. Her caution was good science, but it cost her the race, because Watson and Crick were willing to build a model on less evidence, and to use the evidence that others had produced. The question of how they got that evidence is the heart of the controversy.

3. Photograph 51: what happened in January 1953

In January 1953, Maurice Wilkins showed Photograph 51 to James Watson, without Franklin's knowledge and without her permission. Watson later wrote that when he saw the photograph, the answer to the structure of DNA was obvious: the X shape meant a helix, and the measurements on the photograph told him the dimensions of the helix. He and Crick built a model of the double helix within weeks, and they published it in the journal Nature in April 1953, in a paper that is now one of the most famous in the history of science.

Watson and Crick also had access to a report that Franklin had written for the Medical Research Council, which contained her unpublished results, including her conclusion that DNA was helical and her measurements of its dimensions. The report was shown to them by Max Perutz, a senior scientist at Cambridge, again without Franklin's knowledge. Whether the two acts were a breach of scientific ethics is still argued, but the facts are not in dispute: the Cambridge pair used Franklin's data, without her permission, and they did not acknowledge the extent of their debt to her in their original paper, which mentioned her work only in a brief footnote.

Franklin's defenders argue that this was a serious wrong, and that the Nobel Prize should have been hers as much as anyone's. Watson and Crick's defenders argue that the data was available to the scientific community, that Watson and Crick did the intellectual work of building the model, and that Franklin herself, who was working on the A form, might not have reached the double helix as quickly. Both sides agree on the central fact, which is that Photograph 51 was the key piece of evidence, and that it was Franklin's work. The argument is about what that fact means, and about how credit should be shared.

4. The Nature papers and the years at Birkbeck

When the double helix was published in Nature in April 1953, Franklin's own paper appeared in the same issue, alongside papers by Wilkins and by Gosling, supporting the model with her X-ray evidence. She accepted the model, and she moved on to other work, showing no public bitterness about what had happened. In 1953 she moved to Birkbeck College London, where she worked on the structure of viruses, and in five years she produced work that founded the field of structural virology, the study of the shapes of viruses at the molecular level.

Her work at Birkbeck was remarkable. She showed that the RNA in the tobacco mosaic virus was embedded in its protein coat rather than sitting in a central cavity, and that it formed a single-strand helix, and she worked on the structure of other viruses, including the polio virus, with a team of young researchers whom she trained and inspired. Her colleagues at Birkbeck remembered her as a demanding but generous leader, who insisted on high standards and who gave her students the freedom to think for themselves. The work was cut short by her illness, but it was enough to establish her as one of the leading structural biologists of her generation.

She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1956, and she continued to work through her treatment, publishing papers and supervising her students until a few months before her death. She died on 16 April 1958 in London, at the age of thirty-seven. Her death was a loss to science, and it was also, as it turned out, a loss to the history of the discovery of DNA, because she was not alive to tell her side of the story when the arguments about credit began.

5. The Nobel Prize of 1962 and the question of who was left out

In 1962 the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to James Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins for the discovery of the structure of DNA. Franklin was not among the recipients, and she could not have been, because the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously, and she had died four years earlier. The rule is often cited as the explanation for her absence, and it is true as far as it goes, but it does not answer the question of whether she would have shared the prize if she had lived, a question that has been argued ever since.

Some historians argue that she would have been included, because her data was essential to the discovery and because the Nobel Committee has sometimes recognised four or more contributors by splitting prizes. Others argue that the prize would still have gone to the three men, because the Committee rewards the discovery itself, the model of the double helix, rather than the evidence that led to it, and because Franklin's own work on DNA was incomplete when the model was published. The argument cannot be settled, because the counterfactual cannot be tested, but the fact that it is still argued shows how central her work is now understood to be.

What is certain is that the prize of 1962 fixed the public story of DNA as the story of three men, and that Franklin's name was largely forgotten outside specialist circles for the next decade. It was not until the publication of Watson's book The Double Helix in 1968, which portrayed Franklin in unflattering terms, that the argument began in earnest, because the book's treatment of her angered many readers and prompted a reassessment of her work. The reassessment has continued ever since, and it has made her one of the most famous women in the history of science.

6. The Double Helix, the reassessment and both sides of the argument

Watson's book The Double Helix, published in 1968, is a vivid and entertaining account of the discovery, but its portrait of Franklin, whom Watson called Rosy, was widely criticised as sexist and unfair. He described her as difficult, as unwilling to accept the evidence of her own photographs, and as a woman who did not understand the implications of her work. The book was a bestseller, and its version of events became the popular version, but it also provoked a reaction, as Franklin's friends, colleagues and family defended her, and as historians began to examine the record more carefully.

The reassessment has produced a more balanced picture. Franklin was not, as Watson suggested, a scientist who failed to understand her own data; she was a careful worker who was close to the solution herself, and who had already established the helical nature of DNA and measured its key dimensions. Nor, on the other hand, was she the sole discoverer of the double helix, as some of her more enthusiastic champions have claimed. The model was built by Watson and Crick, using her data and the data of others, and the intellectual leap of proposing two strands wound around each other, with the bases paired in a specific way, was theirs.

The scholarly consensus today is that the discovery of the double helix was a collaborative achievement, in which Franklin's experimental work was essential, Watson and Crick's model-building was decisive, and Wilkins's work and the work of others, including the chemists who established the structure of the bases, also played a part. The consensus does not settle the question of credit, because credit is a matter of judgement, but it does settle the question of fact: without Photograph 51, the double helix would not have been discovered when it was, and Franklin's name belongs alongside the others in the story.

7. Legacy: the scientist who became a symbol

Rosalind Franklin's legacy is now secure, although it took decades to achieve. Her work on DNA is recognised as essential, her work on viruses founded a field, and her name is given to buildings, awards, fellowships and a Mars rover, the Rosalind Franklin rover of the European Space Agency, which was named after her in 2019. She has become a symbol for women in science, and her story is taught in schools as an example of a woman whose work was overlooked and who deserves to be remembered.

The symbolic status carries a risk, which is that the symbol can replace the scientist. Franklin was not only a victim of an injustice, and her story is not only a story about sexism, although sexism was part of it. She was a scientist of the first rank, whose work on coal, on DNA and on viruses was important in its own right, and whose method, patient, rigorous and sceptical, is a model of how science should be done. The best tribute to her is not to make her a martyr but to read her papers, to understand her work, and to recognise that the discovery of the double helix was a human achievement, made by human beings, with all the competition, the generosity and the failings that human beings bring to their work.

Her story also matters for what it teaches about science itself. Discoveries are rarely made by a single person, and the history of a discovery is often written by the winners. Franklin's case is a reminder to look at the evidence, to ask who did the work, and to share the credit fairly. The double helix is one of the great discoveries of the twentieth century, and it belongs to all of those who made it, including the woman whose photograph showed the way.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and further reading

• Encyclopaedia Britannica — Rosalind Franklin
• Wikipedia — Rosalind Franklin
• Nobel Prize — The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962

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• Who Was Don Bradman? — Don Bradman was an Australian cricketer who averaged 99.94 in Test cricket, a record so far ahead of any other batsman that it remains famous in sport.
• Who Was Elvis Presley? — Elvis Presley took gospel, country and rhythm and blues and turned them into rock and roll, becoming the most famous singer of his century.
• Who Was Emily Dickinson? — Emily Dickinson was an American poet who wrote nearly 1,800 poems in private in Amherst, Massachusetts, and was barely published in her lifetime.
• Who Was Faiz Ahmed Faiz? — Faiz Ahmed Faiz was Pakistan's most celebrated modern Urdu poet, whose verse joined romantic lyricism with resistance to injustice.
• Who Was Franz Beckenbauer? — Franz Beckenbauer was a German footballer known as Der Kaiser, who won the World Cup as captain in 1974 and as manager in 1990.
• Who Was Freddie Mercury? — Freddie Mercury was the lead singer of Queen, a four-octave voice and fearless showman who wrote Bohemian Rhapsody and We Are the Champions.
• Who Was Frida Kahlo? — Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter known for uncompromising, brilliantly coloured self-portraits exploring identity, the body and death.
• Who Was Galileo Galilei? — Galileo Galilei reshaped astronomy with his telescopic discoveries of 1610, defended a Sun-centred universe, and was tried by the Inquisition in 1633.
• Who Was Genghis Khan? — Genghis Khan united the Mongol tribes and built the largest contiguous land empire in history, a conqueror and lawgiver whose legacy is still argued over.
• Who Was George Washington? — George Washington won American independence, presided over the Constitutional Convention, and as first president defined the office — then walked away.
• Who Was Guglielmo Marconi? — Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor who built the first practical wireless telegraph and sent the first transatlantic radio signal in 1901.
• Who Was Henry Ford? — Henry Ford was an American industrialist who founded the Ford Motor Company, built the Model T and perfected the moving assembly line.
• Who Was Isaac Newton? — Isaac Newton wrote the laws of motion and universal gravitation, invented calculus and transformed optics, leaving a lasting legacy in science.
• Who Was James Watt? — James Watt did not invent the steam engine, but his separate condenser of 1765 made it efficient enough to power the Industrial Revolution.
• Who Was Jane Austen? — Jane Austen published six novels in her lifetime, anonymously, and died at 41. This explains her life, her novels, her irony and her growing reputation.
• Who Was Jesus Christ? — Jesus of Nazareth is the central figure of Christianity, the world's largest religion. This explains his life in the Gospels, his teachings and his legacy.
• Who Was Johan Cruyff? — Johan Cruyff was the star of Total Football, won three Ballon d'Or awards, and as a manager built the Barcelona team that shaped modern football.
• Who Was Johannes Gutenberg? — Johannes Gutenberg built the first mechanised printing press in Europe and printed the Gutenberg Bible around 1455, changing how the world shared ideas.
• Who Was John Keats? — John Keats died of tuberculosis in Rome at 25, having written his six great odes in a single year. This explains his short life, his poetry and his fame.
• Who Was Joseph Stalin? — Joseph Stalin led the Soviet Union from the 1920s until 1953, industrialised the country and led it through the Second World War, ruling through terror.
• Who Was Julius Caesar? — Julius Caesar conquered Gaul, crossed the Rubicon and remade Rome's calendar and government, and was murdered by senators who feared he would be king.
• Who Was Kobe Bryant? — Kobe Bryant won five NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers and became known for the Mamba Mentality, on and off the court.
• Who Was Leo Tolstoy? — Leo Tolstoy wrote War and Peace and Anna Karenina, then abandoned literary fame for a radical moral philosophy that influenced Gandhi and the world.
• Who Was Leonardo da Vinci? — Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper and filled notebooks with anatomy and engineering, becoming the symbol of the Renaissance.
• Who Was Ludwig van Beethoven? — Ludwig van Beethoven wrote nine symphonies, 32 piano sonatas and the Missa Solemnis, much of it while deaf. This explains his life and legacy.
• Who Was Mahatma Gandhi? — Mahatma Gandhi led India to independence through nonviolent resistance, and his ideas shaped civil-rights movements worldwide.
• Who Was Mao Zedong? — Mao Zedong founded the People's Republic of China in 1949 and led it until 1976, bringing unification and the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution.
• Who Was Margaret Thatcher? — Margaret Thatcher was the first woman to serve as British prime minister, leading the UK from 1979 to 1990 through reform, the Falklands War and division.
• Who Was Marie Curie? — Marie Curie discovered polonium and radium and remains the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences, a pioneer of radioactivity research.
• Who Was Marilyn Monroe? — Marilyn Monroe was the biggest star of the 1950s, the blonde bombshell of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Some Like It Hot, who fought the studio system.
• Who Was Mark Twain? — Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, wrote Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and became America's most famous humorist.
• Who Was Maya Angelou? — Maya Angelou was a poet, memoirist and civil rights activist whose autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings made her widely read.
• Who Was Michael Jackson? — Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, made Thriller, the best-selling album in history, and changed music video, dance and pop stardom.
• Who Was Mirza Ghalib? — Mirza Ghalib (1797-1869) is the pre-eminent Urdu and Persian poet of the last Mughal era, whose ghazals on love, loss and doubt are still recited.
• Who Was Muhammad Ali Jinnah? — Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the barrister and statesman who led the All-India Muslim League and became Pakistan's first Governor-General in 1947.
• Who Was Muhammad Ali? — Muhammad Ali was the three-time heavyweight champion who called himself The Greatest, and the most famous athlete of the twentieth century.
• Who Was Napoleon Bonaparte? — Napoleon Bonaparte rose from Corsica to Emperor of the French, redrew the map of Europe, and left a legal code that still shapes law across the world.
• Who Was Nelson Mandela? — Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison under apartheid, then became South Africa's first democratically elected president and a Nobel Peace laureate.
• Who Was Nikola Tesla? — Nikola Tesla developed the alternating-current power system, the induction motor and the Tesla coil, making long-distance electric power practical.
• Who Was Osama bin Laden? — Osama bin Laden founded al-Qaeda in 1988 and organised the September 11, 2001 attacks, in which nearly 3,000 people were killed.
• Who Was Pablo Neruda? — Pablo Neruda was Chile's great poet, a Nobel laureate, a communist senator and a diplomat. This explains his poetry, his politics and his death.
• Who Was Pablo Picasso? — Pablo Picasso co-founded Cubism, painted Guernica, and spent 75 years breaking the rules of art — the most influential artist of the twentieth century.
• Who Was Pelé? — Pele is the only footballer to win three World Cups, the youngest winner, and the game's first global icon. This is his life, his goals and his legacy.
• Who Was Pope Francis? The People's Pope — Pope Francis, the first pope from the Americas and the first Jesuit pope, led the Catholic Church from 2013 to 2025 with an emphasis on mercy and the poor.
• Who Was Prophet Muhammad? — The Prophet Muhammad is the founder of Islam, the world's second-largest religion. This explains his life, his teachings and his legacy.
• Who Was Queen Elizabeth II? — Queen Elizabeth II reigned for 70 years, from 1952 to 2022 — the longest reign in British history. This explains her life, her reign and her legacy.
• Who Was Rabindranath Tagore? — Rabindranath Tagore was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and the author of the national anthems of India and Bangladesh.
• Who Was Rosa Parks? — Rosa Parks was not a tired seamstress who acted on impulse. She was a trained activist and NAACP secretary whose bus refusal was a deliberate act.
• Who Was Rumi? — Rumi, the thirteenth-century Persian poet of Konya, wrote the Masnavi and the Divan-e Shams, and became the most widely read poet in the world.
• Who Was Shane Warne? — Shane Warne took 708 Test wickets, bowled the Ball of the Century in 1993 and won the 1999 World Cup with Australia. This explains his career.
• Who Was Stephen Hawking? — Stephen Hawking was a theoretical physicist who showed that black holes emit radiation and wrote A Brief History of Time. He died in 2018, aged 76.
• Who Was Steve Jobs? — Steve Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976, was forced out in 1985, built Pixar, and returned to launch the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad. He died in 2011, aged 56.
• Who Was Thomas Edison? — Thomas Edison held 1,093 US patents, invented the phonograph and the practical incandescent lamp, and built the first commercial electric power system.
• Who Was Vincent van Gogh? — Vincent van Gogh produced about 2,100 artworks in a single decade, including The Starry Night and Sunflowers, and became famous only after his death at 37.
• Who Was William Shakespeare? — William Shakespeare is the most performed playwright in history, yet almost nothing is reliably known about his private life.
• Who Was William Wordsworth? — William Wordsworth launched English Romanticism with Lyrical Ballads and wrote The Prelude, the great autobiographical poem. This explains his life.
• Who Was Winston Churchill? — Winston Churchill led Britain through the Second World War and won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and his record on empire is still debated.
• Who Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a child prodigy who composed more than 600 works before his death at 35, defining the Classical era.
• Why Van Gogh Became Famous After Death — Vincent van Gogh died in 1890 almost unknown, and within a few decades his paintings were among the most loved in the world.