In response to the whole #distractinglysexy drama thats going on, I decided that it would make only perfect sense to start a “Badass Female Scientist of the Week” portion where I briefly talk about ..well .. a badass female scientist.

So, the very first badass female scientist of the week is none other than Rosalind Franklin, the biophysicist who is never fully accredited for her amazing work on discovering the structure of DNA. Rosalind Franklin happens to be one of my favorite female scientist because she is a biophysicist (ignore wikipedia’s claim that she’s a chemist), and since I graduated with a degree in biophysics, it just seems right.

Any person that’s taken Biology 1 should’ve at least heard the names James Watson and Francis Crick, the two men who won the nobel prize for discovering that DNA is in the shape of a double helix, but many don’t know that their “discovery” was only made possibly with Franklin’s data. Let’s take a trip into the past, where females with doctorates in science were treated like over-qualified lab techs and academic integrity didn’t mean a thing. Rosalind Franklin was born July 25, 1920 in London and apparently excelled in every science and math course she took. So, in 1945 she was awarded her doctorate in Physical Chemistry at Cambridge University. You know who else is associated with Cambridge? Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Francis Bacon, James Maxwell, John Wallis, Alan Turing, Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr, Lord Kelvin, and Stephen Hawking. Getting a PhD from Cambridge, especially in physics or chemistry, is kind of a big deal. After working for a bit in Paris, Franklin reluctantly decided that she wanted to go back to London. So, she picked up a position at King’s College working directly with graduate student Raymond Gosling. She was specifically hired to work in the Medical Research Council’s Biophysics Unit in John Randall’s lab. With her expertise in X-ray diffraction, she was appointed the research position of DNA diffraction work, taking over Maurice Wilkins’ position. This shift in positions created a tension between Franklin and Wilkins, especially considering that he alwayed considered her to be a lab tech instead of a lab peer. While they both worked on DNA, Franklin and Gosling were focused on finding the struture of DNA using X-ray diffraction, creating what would be called the “most beautiful” X-ray photographs ever made.

Wilkins worked closely with Francis and Crick in efforts to create a DNA model. However, their model was often harshly criticized by Franklin, who believed that the model was incorrect and they didn’t have a sufficient amount of data to even conclude/support their model. At the same time, Franklin and Gosling were making break throughs in photographing DNA. With her images, she discovered that there are two forms of DNA: dry form and wet form. She decided to pursue the dry form image, and set aside her photo of the wet form for future studies. Eventually, she couldn’t stand working at King’s College and moved to Birkbeck College, leaving behind her data. During the move, Wilkins found Franklin’s wet form image of DNA and secretly took it to Watson and Crick. Franklin’s image was the proof they needed to show that DNA was a double helix. They then immediately published a lengthy article about their discovery of the structure of DNA, giving Franklin little credit for her integral part of their discovery, even though they used not only her image but also many of her calculations. Wilkins, Crick, and Watson went on to win a Nobel Prize for their discovery.

But, alas, by the time she really started gaining recognition she had passed from cancer. However, her research after King’s College helped lay the ground work on viruses, and she is still highly commended for her work at Birkbeck College. It was only after her death that many of her male peer researchers began to recognize her for the genius she was, and acknowledge (in the slightest bit) that they were sexist towards her. What does Franklin’s under-appreciated work tell us about the research environment female scientists must work in? That you can discover the structure of DNA and still be considered just a lab tech. It teaches us that even though it’s been over 50 years since her death, we still have sexist noble-prize winning biochemists saying stupid, ridiculous stuff like “You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticize them, they cry.” Dr. Hunt can cry himself to sleep now that he’s had to resign his honorary position at University College London, and I’m going to continue pursuing my degree. If you feel the sudden urge to fall in love with me or criticize me, send a message my way so I can address them like the mature female I am.