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    Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA
    Unavailable
    Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA
    Unavailable
    Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA
    Ebook506 pages9 hours

    Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA

    By Hugo Wilcken

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    In 1962, Maurice Wilkins, Francis Crick, and James Watson received the Nobel Prize, but it was Rosalind Franklin's data and photographs of DNA that led to their discovery.

    Brenda Maddox tells a powerful story of a remarkably single-minded, forthright, and tempestuous young woman who, at the age of fifteen, decided she was going to be a scientist, but who was airbrushed out of the greatest scientific discovery of the twentieth century.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateFeb 26, 2013
    ISBN9780062283504
    Unavailable
    Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA
    Author

    Hugo Wilcken

    Hugo Wilcken is in his thirties and British-Australian. He lives in Paris, where he has worked as a writer since 1990.

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    Reviews for Rosalind Franklin

    4/5

    73 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      When asked to name women in science, Rosalind Franklin is always high on my list. Yet before reading this book, I knew only the barest facts about her: that she was gifted at x-ray crystallography, that Watson & Crick's DNA model would have been impossible (or really, terribly inaccurate) without her, and that her results were used by them in a questionable and poorly acknowledged manner. That's it. It was high time I read this book.

      Thoroughly researched, this seems as an authoritative account of Franklin's life as one is likely to get. It starts slow, with an extensive exploration of Franklin's family -- parents, grandparents, uncles, their status, etc. I am sure it was helpful in establishing a complete portrait of Rosalind, but it was a bit of a chore to slog through.

      But once Rosalind was on the scene, it was hard not to adore (and later sympathize with) her. She was smart, opinionated, and driven -- qualities the world of science (as well as the world in general) was badly prepared to appreciate in a woman. Still, she forged a way for herself, and authored an amazing number of peer-reviewed publications on some of the most pressing scientific problems of the day.

      Surprisingly, at the end of the book I was less irritated on Franklin's behalf, and more just irritated (in a tired way) with Watson's immature self-aggrandizement, and disillusioned with the whole Nobel process. The primary difference between this book and The Double Helix is that Watson's little book is still clinging to a narrative in which great scientific breakthroughs are made by one or two people thinking in a room, whereas this book makes a solid case that modern science is group work.

      Sometimes dry, but highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Franklin was a renowned scientist in her own right, she established her reputation in X-ray photography starting with coal and moving onto viruses and DNA. She was a feisty character, and in her tragically short career she made as many friends as enemies.

      Crick and Watson are the guys credited with discovering the layout of DNA, but they could not have done it without sight of some of her magnificent X-ray photographs of DNA. Theses had been passed to them without her knowledge, and it was the clarity of these that gave them the insight to solve the mystery of the construction of DNA.

      It is thought that she was only one or two steps away from solving this herself, as she as ascertained where certain atoms were and understood the way it behaved.

      She was a enthusiastic traveller, and spent time walking throughout Europe, and travelling all over the states. It was said that America bought out her sunny side, and her collaborations with American scientists were fruitful.

      As she as taking these X-ray photographs, she was not aware of the damage that that they were doing to her, as they had no protection, even leaning over the camera when it was taking the images. She subcommand to cancer, and she died at the age of 38.

      Crick and Watson are the pillars in the discovery of DNA, but she was the keystone.
    • 3/5
      This summer I had an urge to read something about Rosalind Franklin, the scientist who actually discovered the structure of DNA and died young at 37. I liked this biography but I was struck by how often the author quoted friends, colleagues, and associates who commented on Franklin's looks...she was "quite striking," "pretty." I guess it was the 1940s and '50s and that was how women were judged but I thought it was excessive. Now I want to read The Double Helix by James Watson.
    • 4/5
      Maddox does a good job portraying Franklin as a real woman instead of a feminist icon or a minor researcher, and gives a good balance between personal details and scientific information. Although she is clearly on Franklin's 'side', she is is pretty even-handed in presenting the controversy over Watson & Crick's use of Franklin's data. Overall, a very readable biography which I would recommend.
    • 5/5
       One of the most fascinating books I've ever read, and extremely well written. Rosalind Franklin is presented as a woman wronged by a few people in particular, and history in general. She was a brilliant, kind, captivating woman, and it is devastating to think about what her life would have been. It is inspiring to realize all that her life was, how beloved and influential she remains to people who knew her and to a new generation of female scientists.
    • 1/5
      what a painful read. i think i liked her as the woman of mystery more. maddox's biography was a defensive stance against watson and crick's description of her in their books, The Double Helix and What Mad Pursuit. how DARE they say she didn't care about her appearance!?!?!?? Maddox makes sure you know that Rosalind was a very tasteful dresser indeed.
    • 5/5
      This biography paints an amazing picture of a courageous female scientist who broke glass ceilings on every step of her academic journey. Rosalind Franklin is the little known analyst whose x-ray photographs inspired Watson and Crick's Nobel prize winning work on the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. Brenda Maddox presents a well written and fascinating insight into Franklin's personality, research, family, relationships as well as her untimely death. An excellent read, recommended to all fans of biographies and/or molecular biology.
    • 5/5
      A fine portrait of a major contributor to the discovery of DNA. This biography absorbs the reader at many levels - RF's fascinating, complex personality; the struggles of a talented woman in a man's world; the labour pains of scientific discovery; academic politics; crude ambition; stupendous courage...Once read, not forgotten.