Rosalind Franklin: An Uncredited Breakthrough Discovery DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a component of living beings that is the basis upon which all life revolves around. Therefore, for something as crucial as DNA, to make a discovery that was unprecedented would be a major breakthrough. However, the one who made such a discovery could easily be left behind with little credit for doing so. For Rosalind Franklin, this tragedy was all too common. At a young age, Franklin understood her love and passion for science and after graduating with a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at Cambridge University, pursued her passion. Because of her background and understanding in X-ray diffraction (the scattering of X-ray data to provide structural information),…show more content… Evidence B would later be used by other scientists to determine the entire structural format of DNA. This was an astounding discovery for Franklin, and for such a discovery, she would most likely have been awarded and spoken highly of by many other science majors and philosophers. However, when tensions rose between her colleague, Maurice Wilkins, and herself, this destiny gradually began to deviate from its course. Five years before her death at the age of thirty-seven due to ovarian cancer, Wilkins unrightfully steals Evidence B, or Photograph 51. He then would partner with both James Watson and Francis Crick and eventually be credited with their discoveries without the knowledge of Franklin. On March 7, 1953, the three scientists would publish their model of DNA and its structure, of which was based mostly on the photographic evidence pioneered by Rosalind Franklin.While this unrightful discovery would have been painful for Franklin to bear, the wound was worsened when she was advised to leave her job at the King’s College as well as abstain from researching DNA. In spite of this unfortunate occurrence, Franklin was able to continue experimentation on
