After taking this photograph, Franklin showed it to her colleague at King's College London, Maurice Wilkins. Wilkins himself was highly respected scientist in x-ray diffusion and optical microscopy, and even helped develop radar technology. After being given this image, Wilkins showed the photo to James Watson. He did so without Rosalind Franklin's knowledge or approval. From this picture James Watson and his colleague Francis Crick were able to discern the double helical structure of DNA. Watson, Crick, and Wilkins would go on to be awarded the 1962 Nobel Peace Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Rosalind Franklin was ineligible because she had died of gynecological cancer 4 years earlier. Deceased individuals are not eligible for the Nobel Prize.
Did Watson and Crick steal this idea from Franklin? Some will say Watson committed theft and plagiarism, some will say he was inspired by Franklin's images. I say that science is a collaborative process and all scientists build upon the data and knowledge scientists before them have found. The worst part of this whole story is that Franklin was not honored with the Nobel Prize and her hard work may fade into obscurity as time passes.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Franklin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Wilkins
https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Narrative/SC/p-nid/143/p-docs/true
This story is one of my favorites in Biology/Chemistry history, very close to the wild ride that is Fitz Habers' life. I personally believe Franklin was wrongfully denied credit for her influence on discovering DNA. However, I don't necessarily think Watson and Crick are completely at fault since they just put together a lot of small pieces into one big picture which is what many great discoveries have been based on.
ReplyDeleteInteresting side note, the committee that assigns Nobel Prizes recently awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine to a deceased person on a technicality. Ralph Steinman was awarded the Nobel Prize but unbeknownst to the committee Steinman had died three days before so the committee decided that the award was awarded under the assumption the recipient was alive and allowed Steinman to posthumously receive the award.
Loved your blog. We talked about this in class one day when we were having that discussion about how back then it was almost like women were not capable of being recognized as scientists. But, I love when people like yourself, give her the credit that was so wrongfully taken from her.
ReplyDeleteAs I stated in the past, I find this topic quite interesting. It amazes me how Rosalinda Franklin received no credit for her contribution to Watson and cricks "discovery". Your blog reminds me of the debate we had when we discussing the subject in genetics. Some of my peers justified the robbery the same way you did by stating how most discoveries made in science build on top of discoveries made in the past.
ReplyDeleteI will forever be on the side that Rosalind Franklin and her work was disrespected. As a woman in the field of science, being credited can be a task in itself. I do believe that her work and her ideas were stolen. If you have no knowledge of something happening, and you did not give consent for your hard work and research to be displayed to others, then it has been stolen, especially if they use your ideas to base their entire research and paper on. More recently, I do believe, that one of the two, either Watson or crick, I cannot remember which one, stated that what they did was wrong. Rosalind Franklin is one of my favorite people in the sciences and we all know who really should be credited with the discovery of the double helix.
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