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Her name was Rosalind Elsie Franklin. Her work was vital to one of the most significant discoveries in biology in the twentieth century. And most people have no clue who she was.
What was the discovery her work helped uncover?
Rosalind Elsie Franklin did crucial work that underlay the discovery of the double helical structure of DNA. She first postulated a helical structure for DNA. She was very close to discovering the double helix structure herself -- she had made x-ray photographs that clearly implied a double helix -- when her photographs were shown, without her permission, to James Watson and Francis Crick. To quote Watson, in his book, "The Double Helix": "The instant I saw the picture my mouth fell open and my pulse began to race.... the black cross of reflections which dominated the picture could arise only from a helical structure... mere inspection of the X-ray picture gave several of the vital helical parameters."
Watson and Crick beat her to publication, thereby securing for themselves the title of discoverers of DNA's structure, the Nobel Prize (along with Maurice Wilkins, the scientist who showed them Franklin's work) and a spot on Time Magazine's "Top 100" of the twentieth century. Watson trashed Franklin in his book "The Double Helix".
Rosalind Franklin was never properly credited in her lifetime, and went on to do important work on the structures of viruses. She died in 1958 of ovarian cancer, four years before Watson, Crick and Wilkins were awarded the Nobel. It is an open question as to whether she would have shared in that award -- she was not eligible since Nobels are not given posthumously.
Sources: BBC1 and Contributions to 20th Century Physics by Women, UCLA.
What was the discovery her work helped uncover?
Rosalind Elsie Franklin did crucial work that underlay the discovery of the double helical structure of DNA. She first postulated a helical structure for DNA. She was very close to discovering the double helix structure herself -- she had made x-ray photographs that clearly implied a double helix -- when her photographs were shown, without her permission, to James Watson and Francis Crick. To quote Watson, in his book, "The Double Helix": "The instant I saw the picture my mouth fell open and my pulse began to race.... the black cross of reflections which dominated the picture could arise only from a helical structure... mere inspection of the X-ray picture gave several of the vital helical parameters."
Watson and Crick beat her to publication, thereby securing for themselves the title of discoverers of DNA's structure, the Nobel Prize (along with Maurice Wilkins, the scientist who showed them Franklin's work) and a spot on Time Magazine's "Top 100" of the twentieth century. Watson trashed Franklin in his book "The Double Helix".
Rosalind Franklin was never properly credited in her lifetime, and went on to do important work on the structures of viruses. She died in 1958 of ovarian cancer, four years before Watson, Crick and Wilkins were awarded the Nobel. It is an open question as to whether she would have shared in that award -- she was not eligible since Nobels are not given posthumously.
Sources: BBC1 and Contributions to 20th Century Physics by Women, UCLA.
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However, this is the year of the 50th Anniversary of the publication of the structure of DNA, so it is very timely that you posted that! (Nature, April 25, 1953)
(oh, and to add to your trivia, Rosalind Franklin was not very well portrayed in the movie "The Race for the Double Helix" either. The movie got its title from the "race" between Franklin and Watson/Crick to find the structure and have it published.)