While on a professional visit to the United States, Rosalind experienced severe attacks of pain in the abdomen. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at the age of 35. Learning of the diagnosis Rosalind didn’t confine her sickness with anyone. She was a very strong women and saw the disease as a sign
of weakness. Rosalind continued to work over the next two years. She had three operations and experimental chemotherapy and a 10-month remission (A Science of Odyssey n.d.). Rosalind died at the very young age of 37, working up until a few weeks before her death in 1958. After her death, her
unpublished hypothesis that Tobacco Mosaic Virus is a single-strand helix was confirmed (Rosalind Franklin 1999). This goes to show that even after her untimely death she made an impact in the discovery of many research projects. If not for Rosalind Franklin, DNA or TMV could not have been discovered for many years.
The Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine of 1962 was given to Maurice Wilkins, James Watson and Francis Crick. Rosalind Franklin couldn’t be recognized by the Nobel committee in 1962 because she was dead. After her death, Watson and Crick made it clear in public lectures that they couldn’t have discovered
the structure of DNA without her work (Ardell 2006).
The major differences between men and women in this era was the location of socialization. Rosalind Franklin never had lunch with her colleagues at King’s college because women weren’t allowed in the dining room. She also never went out with them after work because the men always attended men only pubs. This
goes to show that women in this time frame were not respected for their hardwork. Rosalind Franklin was a peer to Maurice Wilkins but they didn’t share in the same luxurious socialization group because she was a women.
Through the many bibliographies and journals that I have read, I have come to the conclusion that Rosalind Elsie Franklin was an honest, reliable and extremely hardworking individual. She was distinguished from her colleagues due to her extreme clarity and perfection in everything that she did. J.D. Bernal said “Her photographs are among the most beautiful X-ray photographs of any substance ever taken (Rosalind Franklin 1999).”
