Rosalind’s first job was working in X-ray diffraction. This job was held in France and she loved everything about the environment and her job but she knew if she wanted to make a difference in science she needed to move back to England. After three productive years at Laboratiore Central des Services in Paris, she accepted a job for John Randall at King’s College in London (Ardell 2006). She became a part of a team of scientists that were studying living cells. Ms. Franklin and a graduate student were to work on DNA. Maurice Wilkins, the laboratory’s second-in-command, was on vacation at the time so upon his return, it was a surprise to Rosalind that they were to share the research. Rosalind and Maurice’s relationship was destroyed the minute they met (A Science of Odyssey n.d.). Maurice had the impression that she was his assistant and Rosalind had the impression that the DNA assignment was her work and her work only. Mr. Wilkins personality was just the opposite of Rosalind’s. He was shy, speculative, and passive. The differences in their personalities led to Maurice sharing Rosalind’s data, without her knowledge, with some of his colleagues at Cambridge University. James Watson and Francis Crick, both powerful men, proposed the structure of DNA in March of 1953 (A Science of Odyssey n.d.). Watson and Crick’s discovery came from a variety of sources but was correct and complete.
Ms. Franklin never knew that Watson and Crick had heard of her discoveries, informally, from Maurice Wilkins (Ardell 2006). Ms. Franklin was never bitter or even jealous of Watson and Crick. She went on to write her own report claiming that she agreed with their conclusions but remained somewhat skeptical about some details of their model. Watson later stated that “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 (Rosalind Franklin 1999).”
