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( Rosalind Franklin)
Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 1920 Notting Hill, London – 16 April 1958 Chelsea, London) was an English biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer who made important contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular structures of DNA, viruses, coal and graphite. Franklin is still best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA. Her data, according to Francis Crick, were “the data we actually used” [1] to formulate Crick and Watson's 1953 hypothesis regarding the structure of DNA.[2] However, when her work was published third, in the series of three DNA Nature articles, it appeared to only represent evidence in support of their hypothesis.[3]The possibility of Franklin having played a major role was not revealed until Watson wrote his personal account, "The Double Helix,"[4] which subsequently inspired several people to investigate DNA history and Franklin’s contribution. The first, Robert Olby’s "The Path to the Double Helix," supplied information about original source materials for those that followed. [5] After finishing her portion of the DNA work, Franklin led pioneering work on the tobacco mosaic and polio viruses. She died aged 37 of complications arising from cancer of the ovary. Franklin was born in Notting Hill, London[6] into an affluent and influential British-Jewish family.[7] Her father was Ellis Arthur Franklin (1894-1964), a London merchant banker and her mother was Muriel Frances Waley (1894-1976); she was the elder daughter and second of the family of five children. Her uncle was Herbert Samuel (later Viscount Samuel) who was Home Secretary in 1916 and the first practicing Jew to serve in the British Cabinet.[8] He was also the first High Commissioner (effectively governor) for the British Mandate of Palestine. Her aunt Helen Carolin Franklin was married to Norman de Mattos Bentwich, who was Attorney General in the British Mandate of Palestine.[9] She was active in trade union organisation and women's suffrage, and was later a member of the London County Council.[10][11]
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