Rosalind Franklin: podcast appearances and interviews

Rosalind Elsie Franklin was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer known for her contributions to understanding the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. She graduated with a degree in natural sciences from Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1941 and earned her PhD in physical chemistry from the university in 1945. Franklin's research career included work with the British Coal Utilisation Research Association and postdoctoral research in Paris under Jacques Mering, where she became skilled in X-ray crystallography. In 1951, she joined King's College London as a research associate, where her studies led to important discoveries about DNA. She was instrumental in obtaining X-ray diffraction images of DNA, notably Photo 51, taken by her student Raymond Gosling, which contributed to elucidating the double helix structure. Franklin’s work was vital to the eventual discovery of DNA's structure, although she was not fully recognized during her lifetime and her contributions have often been underappreciated. She moved to Birkbeck College in 1953 due to disagreements with colleagues at King's College. At Birkbeck, she led pioneering studies on the molecular structures of viruses, working under John Desmond Bernal. Franklin died of ovarian cancer at age 37 in 1958. Her team member Aaron Klug continued her research and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1982. Franklin's legacy has been celebrated through various titles, and her work remains influential in molecular biology.