Honour Rosalind Franklin For Her Dna

[gl556tr]

Surely there must be enough people in the community who appreciate the ground-breaking work Rosalind Franklin made that some means of honouring her can be initiated. Without her X-Ray picture of the DNA, who knows how much longer her (male) colleagues would have had to chew their pencils?!

[Hypognosis]

If she had access to computers at that time, she would have arrived at the structure first, I reckon. She was doing Fourier analysis of the X-ray scatter with pen and paper.

I imagine that there are few people still alive that know how to do that type of calculations on paper and that the computer code for it has been passed down at least one generation, possibly with minimal understanding of *how* it works, as opposed to knowing what it achieves, overall.

(I would like to be proven wrong on that point).

[jim360]

Well, there's the Rosalind Franklin Award from the Royal Society, and another from the American Cancer Institute, and a third from the Biotechnology Industry Organization; and the Rosalind Franklin Buildings at Nottingham Trent University, Newnham College, Cambridge and King's College, London;or the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory at Birkbeck; and the Rosalind Franklin University in Chicago; and the Rosalind Franklin Fellowship at Groningen. But apart from that, she's not been recognised at all.

[theprof]

Having held UK, USA and European Chairs in Biochemistry and Chemistry for many years, I'd like to assure you that the contribution made by Rosalind Franklin has never been forgotten in academia.

Over the years, I've worked with many now deceased colleagues who also worked closely with Rosalind. Without exception, they all spoke very highly of her professional attitude, humility and outstanding research ability. It remains unfortunate that due solely to her gender, she was derided relentlessly at certain academic institutions. Having worked at some of these institutions myself, I'll hold off naming them here. Suffice to say, over the years, I've heard some corroborated stories that would make your hair curl regarding attitudes towards Rosalind.

As for honouring her, believe me, she's not been forgotten. As well as the facilities mentioned by jim360, one of my principal laboratories bears her name along with two other Government owned research laboratories at which I moonlight every six weeks or so. I'm also a visiting prof in the US and I've worked in five, maybe six facilities with her name in the title. Offhand, I'd say there are at least two dozen institutions in the US that bear Rosalind's name in one form or another.

It's really not that unusual for famous scientists to be largely forgotten by the general public as a whole. Having said that, these scientists are rarely forgotten by their professional colleagues. I only wish that Rosalind had been treated better by her contemporaries.

[wildwood]

Without attempting to minimise the significance of her or her work, I am afraid that as an average Joe Blow, I've never heard of Rosalind Franklin, or her contribution to science.

The important thing is that she is remembered by her peers, as demonstrated in the above three answers.

[Baldric]

Never heard of her so did my homework .... ... .. .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Franklin

[Peter Pedant]

Baldric.

v good film available Jeff [jurassic park] Goldblum and Juliet Stephenson as Rosie

brings out what a tartar she was


Rosie F herself would say " I am dead - my recognition is my work "

The realisation / knowledge that she was central to it all dates from the sixties. I got it at school

if ya wanna a real story on stealing a no - bel see

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_Hewish



Jovelyn Bell commented I haven't had a bad career as the woman who should have won the Nobel Prize

also see Calvin Singer cycle Calvin erm forgot to put Singer on his papers

[Peter Pedant]

the prof - what is your erdos number w r t Framklin ?
mine is 2 - I knew s/o who knew her

humility isnt a word he would have used

Juliet Stevenson's portrayal was much more like he described her

[theprof]

Peter Pedant, I'm a biochemist, chemist and biologist not a mathematician. As a consequence, I don't have an Erdos number.

http://cs.ucsb.edu/~koc/favs/erdos.html

Besides, bearing in mind that Rosalind died in 1958, I can reveal that I was a mere boy at the time. That's why I pointed out that the colleagues that I discussed Rosalind with are now deceased - they were considerably older than me when I worked with them.

I can't see how you can say you have an Erdos number of 2 on the basis that you knew someone who knew Rosalind. That does not entitle you to an Erdos number. See the link above for clarification. If on the other hand, you are a mathematician and have written the necessary papers and met the other criteria, you may well be entitled to an Erdos number. Please let me know the name of the author you have published with.

Humility might well be a word your friend would not use. He is entitled to his opinion. I've spoken to about eight or nine people who would use the word. Rosalind did not suffer fools gladly. Could that have been the issue?

As to Juliet Stevenson's Horizon portrayal, I have seen the documentary and I am of the view that it does not provide a true picture of her personality. I'm not alone. So called factual drama often leaves a lot to be desired.

[Peter Pedant]

O god I must mean degree of separation

apparently HIV modelling on erdos numbers was better than the older stochastic models - and no it was not based on papers the respective patients had written together

// humility - - - apparently she didnt suffer fools gladly //
yup I would agree with that - and I note a contradiction in humble people I would expect as part of their humility to suffer fools well er patiently

Is it recorded what Rosie did when she found out Maurice WIlkin had given sight of her X rays to competitors? History kept on being rewritten