Rosalind Franklin Research Paper

The story of Rosalind Franklin is a fascinating one, not purely because of her work with X-ray crystallography and DNA molecules, but rather in large part to an exciting race between her and two Cambridge students named James Watson and Francis Crick to see who could determine the correct function of a DNA molecule. Rosalind was born in London on July 25th, 1920 to a wealthy Jewish banking family. Rosalind wasn’t like the other kids. While most kids loved to play pretend and girls especially were expected to play with their dolls, Rosalind preferred to look at life in a literal sense and was constantly searching for a reason to everything (McGrayne 304). As she attended St. Paul’s Girl’s school, she was introduced to physics and chemistry. The classes had such a profound effect on her that she decided she was going to become a scientist. After much debate, argument and frustration with her father, he finally agreed to pay for her to attend Cambridge University. Franklin would go on to attend, and graduate in 1941 (McGrayne 307). Following her schooling, Franklin’s life consisted of moving frequently, researching with Nobel prize winning chemist Ronald Norrish, and discovering how to make a high strength carbon fiber form of charcoal
It all led to March 17th, 1953 when Watson and Crick successfully solved the structure of DNA. They were able to prove the water content of the fibers and the placement of the phosphate sugars were on the outside of the helix. Also realized the the outside chains must go up and the others go down (Watson 206). Upon completion of their paper stating their findings, they shared it with a Sir Lawrence who “enthusiastically expressed his willingness to post it to Nature with a strong covering letter” (Watson 220). Franklin had lost a race in which she did not know she was competing (McGrayne