Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady Of DNA

Ebenezer Belay
Book Report: Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA

Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA is the biography of the physical chemist and X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Elsie Franklin, who is famously known for her research that played a fundamental role in elucidating the structure of the molecule of life – DNA. The author of the book, Brenda Maddox, is an American biographer. The biography was derived from conducting interviews with Rosalind’s relatives, family, friends, from her letters and the papers of she corresponded to scientists with and her scientific archives as well. In doing so Maddox has reformed a more complete biography of Rosalind we now know better. Before Maddox Rosalind’s other friend, Anne Sayre, …show more content…
Rosalind came from a wealthy Anglo-Jewish banking family in 1920.That period was marked with a rise in intellectuals. From early on Rosalind demonstrated a peculiar way of solving and enjoying things such as arithmetic and thinking three dimensionally. As a student she excelled at a girl’s school known for its academic rigor. From the letters, the author tells us Rosalind was a well-rounded young woman. She played cricket, tennis, hockey, and was also part of the debating society. The origin of her interest in crystallography, according to the author, was born in Newnham College in Cambridge where she pursued her undergraduate studies. After getting her degree she went on to work as an assistant researcher at the British Coal Utilization Research Association (BCURA) in Kingston. There she studied the porosity of coal samples by using helium adsorption measurements. In 1945 Cambridge accepted her PhD thesis on the physical chemistry of coal. With the help of Adrienne Weill, Rosalind landed a position in a Paris lab where she continued her analysis on coal but using X-rays this time. Her letters were indicative that she preferred the French people and food over English. One particular hobby of her was hiking the French

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