“Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated.” – Rosalind Franklin
Born in London on July 25, 1920, Franklin was born to a prominent family and strongly pursued academics. Franklin expertized in chemistry and crystallography, yet faced prejudice from both collogues and family. Still, she attained her B.S. in chemistry and her Ph.D. as a fellow at University of Cambridge. Criticism and opposition from her mentor, however, drove her away from the university. Instead, Franklin fulfilled her thesis work at BCURA. At Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l’État, she familiarized herself with x-ray crystallography and discovered the structure of coal. She applied this to study DNA at King’s College with Wilkins, who would eventually give her data to Watson and Crick without her knowledge. She continued to study RNA and the polio virus until her death in 1958 from ovarian cancer.