WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.620 Welcome back to the Deep Dive, where we commit 00:00:01.620 --> 00:00:04.580 to sifting through complex source material to 00:00:04.580 --> 00:00:06.419 hand you the synthesis of knowledge you need 00:00:06.419 --> 00:00:09.339 to be truly well informed. Today we are taking 00:00:09.339 --> 00:00:13.419 on a story that is, it's part scientific triumph. 00:00:13.980 --> 00:00:16.980 part historical injustice and really part of 00:00:16.980 --> 00:00:19.460 profound cultural reevaluation. We're diving 00:00:19.460 --> 00:00:22.120 deep into the life and, yes, the very contested 00:00:22.120 --> 00:00:24.760 legacy of Rosalind Franklin, a brilliant chemist 00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:27.120 and X -ray crystallographer. Right. And she's 00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:29.379 often saddled with these labels, you know, the 00:00:29.379 --> 00:00:33.119 wronged heroine or the dark lady of DNA. Titles 00:00:33.119 --> 00:00:35.909 that. Really, they almost overshadow an extraordinary 00:00:35.909 --> 00:00:38.530 career that spanned three completely distinct 00:00:38.530 --> 00:00:41.969 high -level fields, coal, viruses, and, of course, 00:00:42.009 --> 00:00:44.009 the molecular blueprint of life itself. And our 00:00:44.009 --> 00:00:46.789 mission today is to go far beyond just the famous, 00:00:46.969 --> 00:00:49.929 you know, the famous photo 51. Absolutely. We 00:00:49.929 --> 00:00:52.710 need to absorb a thorough yet concise understanding 00:00:52.710 --> 00:00:54.750 of her comprehensive scientific contributions. 00:00:54.909 --> 00:00:56.990 I mean, work that was appreciated in her short 00:00:56.990 --> 00:00:59.170 lifetime, especially in carbon and virology. 00:00:59.359 --> 00:01:01.700 Oh, absolutely. She was a star in those fields. 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:04.459 But her foundational role in the double helix 00:01:04.459 --> 00:01:06.579 discovery, that was largely obscured, really, 00:01:06.700 --> 00:01:09.060 until long after her death. So to do that, we 00:01:09.060 --> 00:01:11.680 have to understand her method. Franklin was a 00:01:11.680 --> 00:01:15.219 scientist driven by this. This profound, almost 00:01:15.219 --> 00:01:19.099 philosophical commitment to empirical proof. 00:01:19.260 --> 00:01:22.060 Yes. She believed the data had to speak for itself. 00:01:22.319 --> 00:01:24.579 It was an approach that was, well, it was both 00:01:24.579 --> 00:01:26.799 her greatest strength and, ironically, the very 00:01:26.799 --> 00:01:29.400 reason others were able to publish the key insight 00:01:29.400 --> 00:01:32.319 before she felt ready. And before we unpack the 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:34.959 sources chronologically, here's a fantastic little 00:01:34.959 --> 00:01:37.939 nugget that, for me, it just immediately signals 00:01:37.939 --> 00:01:40.480 the level of focus and rigorous intellect we 00:01:40.480 --> 00:01:42.420 are dealing with here. Oh, this is a great story. 00:01:42.680 --> 00:01:44.840 As a child, around the age of six, the sources 00:01:44.840 --> 00:01:46.959 say she spent all her free time doing arithmetic, 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:50.329 purely for pleasure. Just for fun. And she always, 00:01:50.390 --> 00:01:53.209 always got her sons right. That relentless, just 00:01:53.209 --> 00:01:55.950 innate pursuit of accuracy. It was baked into 00:01:55.950 --> 00:01:57.530 her personality right from the very beginning. 00:01:57.769 --> 00:02:01.189 That extraordinary intellectual drive. It wasn't 00:02:01.189 --> 00:02:03.950 in a vacuum. It was nurtured in an environment 00:02:03.950 --> 00:02:06.709 that valued education and social responsibility 00:02:06.709 --> 00:02:10.409 very, very deeply. She was born in 1920 in Notting 00:02:10.409 --> 00:02:13.300 Hill, London. Her family was not just affluent. 00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:15.520 They were highly influential within the British 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:18.240 Jewish community. Right. And it's so important 00:02:18.240 --> 00:02:20.240 to understand this family context because it 00:02:20.240 --> 00:02:23.639 genuinely shaped her entire worldview. Her father, 00:02:23.819 --> 00:02:26.120 Ellis Arthur Franklin, was a London merchant 00:02:26.120 --> 00:02:28.979 banker. But he wasn't just, you know, a finance 00:02:28.979 --> 00:02:32.120 guy. He was politically liberal and he dedicated 00:02:32.120 --> 00:02:34.419 a huge amount of time to education. He taught 00:02:34.419 --> 00:02:36.400 evening classes at the Working Men's College. 00:02:36.639 --> 00:02:38.240 And eventually became the vice principal there. 00:02:38.360 --> 00:02:40.780 I mean, this is a serious commitment. And her 00:02:40.780 --> 00:02:43.860 mother, Muriel Frances Whaley, was just as central 00:02:43.860 --> 00:02:46.259 in creating this atmosphere of service. And if 00:02:46.259 --> 00:02:48.319 you look at the broader family pedigree, it just 00:02:48.319 --> 00:02:51.219 shows this deep, deep history of public engagement. 00:02:51.539 --> 00:02:54.479 Her paternal great uncle was Herbert Samuel. 00:02:54.719 --> 00:02:57.810 Which is a huge name in British politics. A massive 00:02:57.810 --> 00:03:00.650 figure. He was the first practicing Jew to serve 00:03:00.650 --> 00:03:03.030 in the British cabinet. First as home secretary 00:03:03.030 --> 00:03:05.949 and later foreign secretary. Just an immense 00:03:05.949 --> 00:03:08.689 political force. And then on the social activism 00:03:08.689 --> 00:03:11.569 front, you have her Aunt Helen Caroline Franklin. 00:03:11.830 --> 00:03:14.129 Right, who was deeply involved in the trade union 00:03:14.129 --> 00:03:16.409 movement and the women's suffrage fight. She 00:03:16.409 --> 00:03:18.669 later became a notable member of the London County 00:03:18.669 --> 00:03:21.150 Council. So this was not a family that just sat 00:03:21.150 --> 00:03:23.729 on the sidelines. No, they believed in an acting 00:03:23.729 --> 00:03:25.789 change. They were active participants. And that 00:03:25.789 --> 00:03:28.780 humanity. commitment was, well, it was demonstrated 00:03:28.780 --> 00:03:30.759 in the most dramatic way possible during the 00:03:30.759 --> 00:03:33.919 rise of the Nazis in the 1930s. Her parents actively 00:03:33.919 --> 00:03:37.060 helped Jewish refugees escape persecution. They 00:03:37.060 --> 00:03:38.780 were involved in the Kindertransport movement. 00:03:39.039 --> 00:03:41.360 And they didn't just donate money. They took 00:03:41.360 --> 00:03:43.759 several children into their own home, including 00:03:43.759 --> 00:03:46.460 a nine -year -old Austrian girl, Evie Eisenstetter, 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:48.659 who actually share a room with Franklin's younger 00:03:48.659 --> 00:03:50.719 sister. So when you see that deep humanitarian 00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:55.110 focus, you have to ask. How much of her later 00:03:55.110 --> 00:03:58.969 scientific interest in these very practical applications 00:03:58.969 --> 00:04:02.330 -based fields. Like coal during the war. Exactly. 00:04:02.930 --> 00:04:06.669 Wartime coal research. And then later, virus 00:04:06.669 --> 00:04:09.419 research aimed squarely at public health. How 00:04:09.419 --> 00:04:11.819 much of that stemmed from this social consciousness 00:04:11.819 --> 00:04:15.819 rather than just pure abstract physics? It feels 00:04:15.819 --> 00:04:18.240 like a key connection. Franklin always saw her 00:04:18.240 --> 00:04:21.560 science as inherently useful. Her training wasn't 00:04:21.560 --> 00:04:24.579 in abstract theoretical physics. It was in the 00:04:24.579 --> 00:04:27.439 practical application of chemical systems. And 00:04:27.439 --> 00:04:29.600 that practical focus, it really began with her 00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:31.699 education. She went to St. Paul's Girls' School 00:04:31.699 --> 00:04:33.860 in Hammersmith. Which is crucial because it was 00:04:33.860 --> 00:04:36.540 one of the very few London girls' schools at 00:04:36.540 --> 00:04:39.560 the time that provided rigorous instruction in 00:04:39.560 --> 00:04:41.939 physics and chemistry. She just excelled, became 00:04:41.939 --> 00:04:44.199 fluent in French and German, mastered Latin, 00:04:44.360 --> 00:04:46.339 all alongside her scientific achievements. She 00:04:46.339 --> 00:04:49.000 was a genuine polymath. She was a star student. 00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:51.220 She won a scholarship to university in 1938. 00:04:51.740 --> 00:04:53.879 But there's another great anecdote that illustrates 00:04:53.879 --> 00:04:56.180 her family's values here. Oh, right. Her father. 00:04:56.420 --> 00:04:57.689 Her father. Her father actually asked her to 00:04:57.689 --> 00:05:00.069 give up that scholarship, to relinquish it, so 00:05:00.069 --> 00:05:01.930 that a deserving refugee student could take it 00:05:01.930 --> 00:05:03.870 instead. It just shows you where their priorities 00:05:03.870 --> 00:05:06.550 were. They prioritized helping others, even over 00:05:06.550 --> 00:05:08.509 celebrating her own considerable achievements. 00:05:08.769 --> 00:05:11.149 She attended Newnham College, Cambridge anyway, 00:05:11.410 --> 00:05:16.009 and graduated in 1941. And this led to her initial 00:05:16.009 --> 00:05:18.329 and very challenging attempt at postgraduate 00:05:18.329 --> 00:05:20.730 work. Right. She tries to pursue a Ph .D. in 00:05:20.730 --> 00:05:24.620 physical chemistry under Ronald George. Rayford 00:05:24.620 --> 00:05:27.079 Norrish. Let's just pause on that term, physical 00:05:27.079 --> 00:05:29.240 chemistry. For anyone listening, this is the 00:05:29.240 --> 00:05:30.980 branch of science that's all about the physical 00:05:30.980 --> 00:05:33.519 properties and interactions of chemical systems. 00:05:33.800 --> 00:05:35.620 So you're applying the principles of physics, 00:05:35.660 --> 00:05:38.870 things like energy, force. quantum mechanics 00:05:38.870 --> 00:05:41.970 to chemical phenomena. It's incredibly rigorous. 00:05:42.069 --> 00:05:44.850 It's all data driven. Exactly. It requires absolute 00:05:44.850 --> 00:05:47.730 painstaking rigor. And that's precisely where 00:05:47.730 --> 00:05:49.870 the conflict came from. With Norrish. With Norrish, 00:05:49.970 --> 00:05:52.209 who, by the way, would later win the Nobel Prize 00:05:52.209 --> 00:05:55.370 himself. He was described as obstinate and almost 00:05:55.370 --> 00:05:57.910 perverse in argument. And Franklin found the 00:05:57.910 --> 00:06:00.970 whole experience so frustrating. She found Norrish 00:06:00.970 --> 00:06:03.769 so lacking in enthusiasm that she later wrote, 00:06:03.889 --> 00:06:05.730 and this is a direct quote, that she came to 00:06:05.730 --> 00:06:08.250 despise him completely. So that early attempt 00:06:08.250 --> 00:06:11.350 at a PhD was short and unsuccessful, but it is 00:06:11.350 --> 00:06:14.970 so deeply revealing. It reveals her incredibly 00:06:14.970 --> 00:06:18.949 low tolerance for what she saw as incompetence 00:06:18.949 --> 00:06:21.089 or anything that seemed scientifically sloppy. 00:06:21.589 --> 00:06:24.310 That fastidious nature would just define her 00:06:24.310 --> 00:06:26.850 entire career. So when that initial academic 00:06:26.850 --> 00:06:29.730 path fizzled out, she pivoted quickly. She had 00:06:29.730 --> 00:06:31.810 to fulfill the National Service Act's requirement 00:06:31.810 --> 00:06:34.449 during World War II. Right. And in 1942, she 00:06:34.449 --> 00:06:37.290 joins the British Coal Utilization Research Association, 00:06:37.470 --> 00:06:40.170 or BCURA. And this is where she publishes her 00:06:40.170 --> 00:06:43.110 first truly groundbreaking work. It's focused 00:06:43.110 --> 00:06:45.829 intensely on the physical chemistry of coal, 00:06:46.009 --> 00:06:49.250 specifically its microstructure and its porosity. 00:06:49.529 --> 00:06:51.370 And we have to remember, this was essential wartime 00:06:51.370 --> 00:06:53.670 science. This directly impacted fuel efficiency, 00:06:53.970 --> 00:06:57.209 safety. It was critical work. Her research used 00:06:57.209 --> 00:06:59.410 these highly precise techniques. For instance, 00:06:59.569 --> 00:07:01.709 she used helium gas to determine the true density 00:07:01.709 --> 00:07:03.990 of coal, which allowed her to map the internal 00:07:03.990 --> 00:07:06.629 structure of these porous, messy substances. 00:07:07.050 --> 00:07:09.990 Her key discovery here was establishing the definitive 00:07:09.990 --> 00:07:12.240 relationship between the fine constriction inside 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:15.079 the coal pores and the permeability of that porous 00:07:15.079 --> 00:07:17.980 space. Which sounds technical, but it's basically 00:07:17.980 --> 00:07:21.060 figuring out how gases or fluids could pass through 00:07:21.060 --> 00:07:24.040 the solid material. So why does that matter to 00:07:24.040 --> 00:07:27.779 her career arc? It matters because this technical 00:07:27.779 --> 00:07:30.790 insight It allowed for the accurate classification 00:07:30.790 --> 00:07:33.110 of different types of coals. And more importantly, 00:07:33.269 --> 00:07:36.269 it had immediate wartime applications. These 00:07:36.269 --> 00:07:38.189 measurements were crucial for predicting how 00:07:38.189 --> 00:07:41.310 coal would perform as fuel, but also for vital 00:07:41.310 --> 00:07:43.750 defensive equipment. Like gas masks. Exactly, 00:07:43.889 --> 00:07:46.550 like gas masks, which absolutely rely on a predictable 00:07:46.550 --> 00:07:49.230 filtration capacity. You need to know exactly 00:07:49.230 --> 00:07:52.269 what can and can't get through. This was highly 00:07:52.269 --> 00:07:54.970 specialized, incredibly successful work. And 00:07:54.970 --> 00:07:57.089 all of this research formed the entire basis 00:07:57.089 --> 00:08:00.319 of her 1945. PhD thesis, which was titled The 00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:02.899 Physical Chemistry of Solid Organic Colloids 00:08:02.899 --> 00:08:05.220 with Special Reference to Coal. So by the age 00:08:05.220 --> 00:08:07.920 of 25, she's already a published expert. She's 00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:10.379 known for her ability to bring mathematical precision 00:08:10.379 --> 00:08:13.879 to these amorphous, difficult to analyze materials. 00:08:14.180 --> 00:08:16.839 And this mastery of difficult x -ray techniques, 00:08:17.060 --> 00:08:19.259 that was her scientific superpower. It's what 00:08:19.259 --> 00:08:22.220 she takes with her to Paris. Right. That mastery 00:08:22.220 --> 00:08:24.259 of structure and these challenging materials 00:08:24.259 --> 00:08:27.279 set the stage perfectly for the next critical 00:08:27.279 --> 00:08:29.899 phase of her career. Her four years in Paris, 00:08:30.079 --> 00:08:32.559 where she fully embraced the tools of X -ray 00:08:32.559 --> 00:08:35.960 crystallography. After the war, in 1947, she 00:08:35.960 --> 00:08:39.059 secured a position in Paris as a chercheur, which 00:08:39.059 --> 00:08:41.419 is a postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratoire 00:08:41.419 --> 00:08:43.940 Central des Services Chimiques de l 'État. And 00:08:43.940 --> 00:08:45.720 this was thanks to her friendship with a French 00:08:45.720 --> 00:08:49.059 refugee she knew, Adrienne Weil, a connection 00:08:49.059 --> 00:08:52.279 that changed her life. It really did. We often 00:08:52.279 --> 00:08:54.379 talk about X -ray crystallography in the context 00:08:54.379 --> 00:08:57.179 of DNA, but for you listening, what exactly did 00:08:57.179 --> 00:08:59.519 this involve, especially in her field at the 00:08:59.519 --> 00:09:01.220 time? Well, at its simplest, you're shooting 00:09:01.220 --> 00:09:03.200 a beam of X -rays at a crystallized substance. 00:09:03.460 --> 00:09:05.820 When those X -rays hit the regularly arranged 00:09:05.820 --> 00:09:09.279 atoms inside the crystal, they diffract or scatter, 00:09:09.419 --> 00:09:12.440 and they create a pattern on a piece of photographic 00:09:12.440 --> 00:09:14.159 film. A pattern of spots. A pattern of spots. 00:09:14.279 --> 00:09:16.700 And by analyzing the angles and the intensity 00:09:16.700 --> 00:09:19.179 of those scattered spots, the diffraction pattern, 00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:21.759 you can mathematically reconstruct. the three 00:09:21.759 --> 00:09:23.940 -dimensional structure of the molecule that created 00:09:23.940 --> 00:09:26.440 it. And the key here, and this goes back to her 00:09:26.440 --> 00:09:29.039 work on coal, is that Franklin wasn't starting 00:09:29.039 --> 00:09:31.860 with neat, perfectly ordered crystals. No, not 00:09:31.860 --> 00:09:34.440 at all. She worked under Joff Meringue, and he 00:09:34.440 --> 00:09:36.759 was focused on amorphous substances, things like 00:09:36.759 --> 00:09:40.539 rayon. Messy stuff. Exactly. Amorphous materials 00:09:40.539 --> 00:09:43.659 lack that neat, repetitive, orderly structure 00:09:43.659 --> 00:09:46.700 of perfect crystals. And that makes the resulting 00:09:46.700 --> 00:09:50.360 X -ray patterns smeared, messy, and incredibly 00:09:50.360 --> 00:09:52.919 difficult to interpret mathematically. So Mering 00:09:52.919 --> 00:09:54.759 was the expert in applying these challenging 00:09:54.759 --> 00:09:57.759 new techniques to these messy materials. He was. 00:09:57.899 --> 00:10:00.620 So she applied her deep knowledge of carbon from 00:10:00.620 --> 00:10:03.000 her coal research, and she coupled it with Mering's 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:05.320 sophisticated new techniques. And she starts 00:10:05.320 --> 00:10:08.120 tracking the structural changes as carbon atoms 00:10:08.120 --> 00:10:10.059 convert into... to graphite when you heat them, 00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:12.720 a process that's critical to all sorts of industrial 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:15.399 applications. Her findings here are a lasting 00:10:15.399 --> 00:10:18.000 part of mainstream science, completely independent 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:21.080 of her later fame. She coined the essential lasting 00:10:21.080 --> 00:10:24.519 terms graphitizing and non -graphitizing carbon. 00:10:24.679 --> 00:10:26.240 And those terms are still used today, right? 00:10:26.299 --> 00:10:29.179 In material science, physics, chemistry. Yes, 00:10:29.179 --> 00:10:31.820 they're fundamental. They're used to classify 00:10:31.820 --> 00:10:34.539 how different carbon -based materials behave 00:10:34.539 --> 00:10:37.539 when they're heated. This four -year period in 00:10:37.539 --> 00:10:41.000 Paris solidified her status as a global leader 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:45.360 in this niche, difficult field. It's so clear 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:47.740 that professionally this was a golden era for 00:10:47.740 --> 00:10:50.549 her. But what about personally? The sources all 00:10:50.549 --> 00:10:53.529 indicate she absolutely thrived in France. Oh, 00:10:53.549 --> 00:10:56.110 she did. She was passionate about French culture. 00:10:56.210 --> 00:10:59.269 She was frequently out hiking, exploring, engaging 00:10:59.269 --> 00:11:02.289 in Parisian life. She explicitly described the 00:11:02.289 --> 00:11:05.190 culture there as, quote, vastly superior to that 00:11:05.190 --> 00:11:07.830 of English. And she found English people prone 00:11:07.830 --> 00:11:10.870 to faking stupid faces and childlike complacency. 00:11:10.990 --> 00:11:13.049 That speaks volumes about the intellectual and 00:11:13.049 --> 00:11:14.950 social freedom she must have felt there compared 00:11:14.950 --> 00:11:17.330 to the rigid, stuffy British academic environment 00:11:17.330 --> 00:11:19.720 she'd experienced before. He does. And it sounds 00:11:19.720 --> 00:11:21.740 like Merrin was an exceptionally supportive mentor, 00:11:21.840 --> 00:11:24.419 too. He fully recognized her talent. He was apparently 00:11:24.419 --> 00:11:27.279 captivated by her intellect, but he also recognized 00:11:27.279 --> 00:11:29.960 her exacting standards. What's fascinating is 00:11:29.960 --> 00:11:32.299 that while she kept her deepest personal feelings 00:11:32.299 --> 00:11:36.200 very private, she clearly gained immense confidence 00:11:36.200 --> 00:11:39.220 and refined her independent, rigorous style of 00:11:39.220 --> 00:11:41.519 research during this period. It prepared her 00:11:41.519 --> 00:11:44.120 for the inevitable high -stakes conflicts that 00:11:44.120 --> 00:11:46.379 were waiting for her back in London. She learned 00:11:46.379 --> 00:11:49.179 to trust her data implicitly. To believe in the 00:11:49.179 --> 00:11:51.919 proof above all else. So Franklin returns to 00:11:51.919 --> 00:11:55.320 London in January 1951, and she accepts a three 00:11:55.320 --> 00:11:57.940 -year fellowship at King's College. And this 00:11:57.940 --> 00:12:00.840 move, it marks the beginning of the most fraught, 00:12:00.860 --> 00:12:03.240 most important, and certainly the most documented 00:12:03.240 --> 00:12:06.649 two years of her entire career. Right. She joins 00:12:06.649 --> 00:12:08.870 the Medical Research Council's biophysics unit, 00:12:08.990 --> 00:12:11.970 which was directed by John Randall. Now, initially, 00:12:12.070 --> 00:12:14.509 she was recruited to apply her X -ray diffraction 00:12:14.509 --> 00:12:17.309 expertise to proteins and lipids. But Randall, 00:12:17.389 --> 00:12:19.450 who was very aware that the race to understand 00:12:19.450 --> 00:12:22.789 the gene was focusing heavily on DNA, he immediately 00:12:22.789 --> 00:12:25.190 redirected her. He saw her skill set and knew 00:12:25.190 --> 00:12:27.269 where it was needed most. And this is where the 00:12:27.269 --> 00:12:29.990 notorious interpersonal conflicts begin. And 00:12:29.990 --> 00:12:32.289 they're rooted almost entirely in a foundational 00:12:32.289 --> 00:12:34.470 error by the director, a complete management 00:12:34.470 --> 00:12:37.769 failure. Franklin was the only experienced experimental 00:12:37.769 --> 00:12:40.110 diffraction researcher at King's at that time. 00:12:40.490 --> 00:12:43.250 Randall assigns her the high purity signer DNA 00:12:43.250 --> 00:12:46.190 sample, a highly prized resource, along with 00:12:46.190 --> 00:12:48.909 a graduate student named Raymond Gosling. And 00:12:48.909 --> 00:12:50.889 Gosling had previously been working with Maurice 00:12:50.889 --> 00:12:53.809 Wilkins. This is the crucial communication failure. 00:12:54.669 --> 00:12:57.309 Randall completely failed to inform Maurice Wilkins 00:12:57.309 --> 00:12:59.730 of this reassignment. He specifically failed 00:12:59.730 --> 00:13:01.470 to clarify that Franklin was taking over the 00:13:01.470 --> 00:13:04.049 DNA work and that she was operating as an independent 00:13:04.049 --> 00:13:07.299 group leader. So when Franklin arrives, Wilkins, 00:13:07.419 --> 00:13:10.179 who was known to be shy, maybe a bit calculating 00:13:10.179 --> 00:13:12.639 and was already struggling to produce high quality 00:13:12.639 --> 00:13:16.159 X -ray images of DNA. He just assumed she was 00:13:16.159 --> 00:13:18.039 being hired as a research associate to assist 00:13:18.039 --> 00:13:20.840 him. An assistant. An assistant. And the clash 00:13:20.840 --> 00:13:23.929 was immediate and explosive. Franklin was. proven 00:13:23.929 --> 00:13:26.549 independent group leader from Paris. She was 00:13:26.549 --> 00:13:29.929 concise, impatient, direct. Traits that often 00:13:29.929 --> 00:13:32.370 unnerved colleagues in the male -dominated and 00:13:32.370 --> 00:13:34.669 frankly slightly more reserved King's environment. 00:13:35.029 --> 00:13:38.409 Absolutely. And Wilkins perceived her directness 00:13:38.409 --> 00:13:41.230 as arrogance. He actually called it her air of 00:13:41.230 --> 00:13:44.590 cool superiority. So the fundamental miscommunication 00:13:44.590 --> 00:13:48.190 created this zero -sum game before she even had 00:13:48.190 --> 00:13:50.230 a chance to set up her lab. But the personal 00:13:50.230 --> 00:13:52.990 friction immediately yielded technical brilliance. 00:13:53.470 --> 00:13:55.590 Franklin inherited Wilkins' existing equipment, 00:13:55.730 --> 00:13:58.529 but she was deeply dissatisfied. Her expertise 00:13:58.529 --> 00:14:00.970 in physical chemistry just kicked right in. She 00:14:00.970 --> 00:14:03.090 refined the x -ray tube and the micro camera 00:14:03.090 --> 00:14:05.129 setup. But what was her critical innovation? 00:14:05.370 --> 00:14:07.370 The thing that really changed the game? It was 00:14:07.370 --> 00:14:09.500 controlling the environment. She built a tiny, 00:14:09.799 --> 00:14:12.639 humidity -controlled camera chamber. She did 00:14:12.639 --> 00:14:15.179 it by using saturated salt solutions to maintain 00:14:15.179 --> 00:14:18.039 these precise levels of moisture around the DNA 00:14:18.039 --> 00:14:20.679 fiber while it was being exposed to X -rays. 00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:23.440 And why was humidity control such a breakthrough 00:14:23.440 --> 00:14:26.039 for studying DNA? Well, DNA is a hygroscopic 00:14:26.039 --> 00:14:28.799 molecule. It interacts really strongly with water. 00:14:28.899 --> 00:14:30.960 So the amount of water that's bound to the fiber 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:33.740 dictates its physical shape, its structure. So 00:14:33.740 --> 00:14:35.500 Wilkins had been taking pictures of fibers that 00:14:35.500 --> 00:14:39.139 were probably... What? Half dry, half wet? A 00:14:39.139 --> 00:14:41.860 mix. That's the thinking. And that would lead 00:14:41.860 --> 00:14:44.740 to messy, ambiguous, smeared diffraction patterns. 00:14:45.379 --> 00:14:47.580 Franklin's innovation allowed her to isolate 00:14:47.580 --> 00:14:51.240 and stabilize the DNA in two completely distinct 00:14:51.240 --> 00:14:54.340 hydration states. And using this refined, precise 00:14:54.340 --> 00:14:57.279 technique, she makes the immediate foundational 00:14:57.279 --> 00:15:01.039 discovery that DNA existed in two forms determined 00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:04.830 entirely by humidity. The drier form A, which 00:15:04.830 --> 00:15:06.690 was short and fat and she initially called it 00:15:06.690 --> 00:15:09.029 crystalline, and the higher humidity form B, 00:15:09.250 --> 00:15:12.269 which was long and thin and she called wet. And 00:15:12.269 --> 00:15:14.350 Randall formally divides the work at this point. 00:15:14.750 --> 00:15:17.309 Franklin took the data -rich A form for intensive 00:15:17.309 --> 00:15:20.669 study and Wilkins was left with the B form. But 00:15:20.669 --> 00:15:23.389 even in her initial analysis of both forms, she 00:15:23.389 --> 00:15:25.950 was already making these key intellectual strides 00:15:25.950 --> 00:15:28.009 that confirmed the overall architecture of the 00:15:28.009 --> 00:15:30.529 molecule. We know that in November 1951, she 00:15:30.529 --> 00:15:33.039 gave a lecture. And her notes from that lecture 00:15:33.039 --> 00:15:35.100 reveal she was already concluding that the structure 00:15:35.100 --> 00:15:37.820 was helical. And critically, that the hydrophilic 00:15:37.820 --> 00:15:40.200 phosphate groups, the molecular backbone, were 00:15:40.200 --> 00:15:42.919 located near the outside. That placement of the 00:15:42.919 --> 00:15:45.340 phosphate groups was a crucial, crucial piece 00:15:45.340 --> 00:15:48.379 of the puzzle. Other theoretical amygdala builders, 00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:51.039 like Linus Pauling, were still proposing models 00:15:51.039 --> 00:15:53.379 where the phosphates were incorrectly buried 00:15:53.379 --> 00:15:55.639 on the inside. And James Watson was actually 00:15:55.639 --> 00:15:57.970 in the audience for that lecture. But the sources 00:15:57.970 --> 00:16:00.509 all suggest he completely failed to comprehend 00:16:00.509 --> 00:16:03.129 the profound significance of her discovery about 00:16:03.129 --> 00:16:05.629 the external phosphate groups. It's just astonishing 00:16:05.629 --> 00:16:08.289 that such a critical clue was missed by the competition, 00:16:08.529 --> 00:16:10.809 simply because they weren't rigorously focused 00:16:10.809 --> 00:16:13.289 on the crystallographic data itself. It feeds 00:16:13.289 --> 00:16:15.450 right into this paradox that defines her story, 00:16:15.570 --> 00:16:18.090 the clash between her patient rigor and their 00:16:18.090 --> 00:16:20.429 speculative speed. And her commitment to only 00:16:20.429 --> 00:16:24.980 reporting proven facts was absolute. In May 1952, 00:16:25.039 --> 00:16:27.700 after she recorded an asymmetrical X -ray image 00:16:27.700 --> 00:16:30.779 of ADNA, she temporarily concluded that ADNA 00:16:30.779 --> 00:16:33.779 was not a helix. Yes, and she and Gosling, they 00:16:33.779 --> 00:16:36.460 famously drew up this satirical funeral notice 00:16:36.460 --> 00:16:39.240 for the death of helical ADNA. They signed it 00:16:39.240 --> 00:16:41.419 and sent it to Wilkins as a sort of dark scientific 00:16:41.419 --> 00:16:44.080 joke. That anecdote brilliantly captures her 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:46.399 scientific philosophy. She even had a motto. 00:16:46.720 --> 00:16:49.419 We are not going to speculate. We're going to 00:16:49.419 --> 00:16:52.779 wait. We're going to let the spots on this photograph 00:16:52.779 --> 00:16:56.000 tell us what the DNA structure is. And waiting 00:16:56.000 --> 00:16:58.620 meant doing the grueling, complex mathematical 00:16:58.620 --> 00:17:02.639 work. Throughout 1952, she and Gosling performed 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:05.819 this intensive Patterson function analysis on 00:17:05.819 --> 00:17:08.160 their X -ray photographs. OK, let's unpack that 00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:10.220 term for you listening. What is the Patterson 00:17:10.220 --> 00:17:12.859 function analysis and why was it so incredibly 00:17:12.859 --> 00:17:16.160 labor intensive in the 1950s? It's a very sophisticated 00:17:16.160 --> 00:17:19.160 mathematical tool in crystallography. An X -ray 00:17:19.160 --> 00:17:21.099 pattern, the spots on the film, is essentially 00:17:21.099 --> 00:17:23.819 a map of how the electrons in the molecule scattered 00:17:23.819 --> 00:17:26.079 the X -ray beam. Right. The Patterson function 00:17:26.079 --> 00:17:28.180 is the technique you use to convert that scattering 00:17:28.180 --> 00:17:30.279 pattern into a three -dimensional map of electron 00:17:30.279 --> 00:17:33.319 density. In plain terms, it's how you turn the 00:17:33.319 --> 00:17:36.400 abstract diffraction image into a concrete visual 00:17:36.400 --> 00:17:39.079 representation of the molecule's shape and the 00:17:39.079 --> 00:17:40.759 arrangement of its atoms. So it's the mathematical 00:17:40.759 --> 00:17:43.200 process of turning this fuzzy photographic evidence 00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:46.119 into clear structural coordinates. Precisely. 00:17:46.180 --> 00:17:49.519 And in the 1950s, before powerful computers, 00:17:49.880 --> 00:17:52.920 this required immense amounts of manual calculation. 00:17:53.180 --> 00:17:55.299 It was brutal. It wasn't about guessing. It was 00:17:55.299 --> 00:17:57.720 about mathematically deriving the coordinates 00:17:57.720 --> 00:18:00.519 point by point. And this rigorous work produced 00:18:00.619 --> 00:18:03.140 the resulting photographs, which of course included 00:18:03.140 --> 00:18:05.960 the landmark Photo 51, which was actually captured 00:18:05.960 --> 00:18:08.380 by her student, Gosling, under her direction. 00:18:08.700 --> 00:18:11.019 Photographs that were so spectacular John Desmond 00:18:11.019 --> 00:18:13.339 Bernal later called them amongst the most beautiful 00:18:13.339 --> 00:18:16.099 x -ray photographs of any substance ever taken. 00:18:16.279 --> 00:18:18.720 They were without any doubt the definitive empirical 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:21.019 evidence needed to solve the problem. So you 00:18:21.019 --> 00:18:23.359 have this situation. Franklin is sitting on the 00:18:23.359 --> 00:18:26.779 most beautiful, meticulously analyzed and definitive 00:18:26.779 --> 00:18:29.420 data set in the world. And she's focused entirely 00:18:29.420 --> 00:18:32.059 on the painstaking process of mathematical proof. 00:18:32.319 --> 00:18:34.359 Meanwhile, up at the Cavendish Lab in Cambridge, 00:18:34.420 --> 00:18:37.140 you have James Watson and Francis Crick. And 00:18:37.140 --> 00:18:39.099 their approach is... completely different. They're 00:18:39.099 --> 00:18:41.920 focused on model building a speculative, rapid 00:18:41.920 --> 00:18:45.299 fire, trial and error approach. And the pace 00:18:45.299 --> 00:18:48.180 of this race just accelerates dramatically in 00:18:48.180 --> 00:18:51.759 January 1953 because Linus Pauling, the world's 00:18:51.759 --> 00:18:54.480 leading chemist, was closing in on a solution 00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:57.559 himself. Watson visits King's and he's carrying 00:18:57.559 --> 00:19:00.259 a preprint of Pauling's latest draft, which proposed 00:19:00.259 --> 00:19:03.210 an incorrect triple helix model. And Watson tries 00:19:03.210 --> 00:19:05.349 to engage Franklin in a collaboration, which, 00:19:05.470 --> 00:19:07.950 given their history and her complete dislike 00:19:07.950 --> 00:19:11.049 of his speculative style, only infuriated her. 00:19:11.170 --> 00:19:13.789 And this is the moment. The moment that cemented 00:19:13.789 --> 00:19:16.019 the entire controversy. After this frustrating 00:19:16.019 --> 00:19:18.400 encounter with Franklin, Watson retreats and 00:19:18.400 --> 00:19:20.539 runs into Maurice Wilkins. And Wilkins, in a 00:19:20.539 --> 00:19:23.579 moment of, well, frustration, and without Franklin's 00:19:23.579 --> 00:19:26.039 knowledge or permission, shows Watson the crucial 00:19:26.039 --> 00:19:28.880 BDNA image. He shows him photo 51. He shows him 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:31.519 photo 51. Watson, who understood the theory of 00:19:31.519 --> 00:19:34.000 helis, immediately understood the visual significance 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:36.980 of that cross -shaped pattern. But the data transfer 00:19:36.980 --> 00:19:39.460 didn't stop there, did it? No. The head of the 00:19:39.460 --> 00:19:42.099 Cavendish lab, Lawrence Bragg, encourages Watson 00:19:42.099 --> 00:19:44.460 and Crick to restart their model building now 00:19:44.460 --> 00:19:47.039 that Pauling's error was known. And critical 00:19:47.039 --> 00:19:49.400 to their success was getting access to Franklin's 00:19:49.400 --> 00:19:51.799 detailed scientific notes. This is where the 00:19:51.799 --> 00:19:54.880 MRC report comes in. Yes. Francis Crick receives 00:19:54.880 --> 00:19:57.400 a copy of a Confidential Medical Research Council 00:19:57.400 --> 00:20:01.119 Biophysics Committee report from December 1952. 00:20:01.559 --> 00:20:04.019 And this report contained detailed, quantitative 00:20:04.019 --> 00:20:06.660 crystallographic calculations derived directly 00:20:06.660 --> 00:20:09.579 from Franklin and Gosling's data. It was provided 00:20:09.579 --> 00:20:12.180 to him by his supervisor, Max Peretz, who had 00:20:12.180 --> 00:20:13.859 served on the visiting committee that reviewed 00:20:13.859 --> 00:20:16.259 the work at King's. This was essentially internal, 00:20:16.539 --> 00:20:19.220 unpublished, proprietary data being shared without 00:20:19.220 --> 00:20:21.619 permission. And that confidential report provided 00:20:21.619 --> 00:20:24.839 two critical quantitative parameters that immediately 00:20:24.839 --> 00:20:28.619 broke the deadlock for Crick. First, it decisively 00:20:28.619 --> 00:20:31.319 confirmed the 34 Angstrom repeat distance of 00:20:31.319 --> 00:20:33.779 the DNA structure. And an Angstrom, for context, 00:20:33.940 --> 00:20:37.700 is a tiny unit of length. It's one ten billionth 00:20:37.700 --> 00:20:40.599 of a meter. That 34 Angstrom measurement represented 00:20:40.599 --> 00:20:43.400 the exact length of one complete turn of the 00:20:43.400 --> 00:20:46.200 DNA helix. It was a precise, quantifiable fact. 00:20:46.339 --> 00:20:47.980 It just narrowed the structural possibilities 00:20:47.980 --> 00:20:50.960 immensely. And the second, perhaps even more 00:20:50.960 --> 00:20:53.420 revealing piece of data, was that the structure 00:20:53.420 --> 00:20:56.619 had C2 symmetry. This is the mathematical clue 00:20:56.619 --> 00:20:59.140 that immediately told Crick the molecule must 00:20:59.140 --> 00:21:01.559 contain two chains running in opposite directions, 00:21:01.839 --> 00:21:05.160 anti -parallel strands. That C2 symmetry observation 00:21:05.160 --> 00:21:08.160 was just huge for them. It was everything. If 00:21:08.160 --> 00:21:10.700 they hadn't seen that precise mathematical symmetry 00:21:10.700 --> 00:21:13.779 in her data, they could have wasted months, maybe 00:21:13.779 --> 00:21:17.099 years, building incorrect models with three chains 00:21:17.099 --> 00:21:20.339 or four chains or parallel chains. Franklin's 00:21:20.339 --> 00:21:22.619 painstaking measurements provided the immediate 00:21:22.619 --> 00:21:24.740 intellectual framework for the double helix. 00:21:24.779 --> 00:21:26.720 But it's so important to remember that she was 00:21:26.720 --> 00:21:29.220 converging on the structure independently. Her 00:21:29.220 --> 00:21:32.140 notebooks show that by February 1953, she had 00:21:32.140 --> 00:21:35.380 successfully reconciled her A DNA and B DNA data. 00:21:35.559 --> 00:21:38.640 She had. She realized that the B form was the 00:21:38.640 --> 00:21:41.519 true helical structure and that the A form was 00:21:41.519 --> 00:21:43.940 simply an unwound version of it that appeared 00:21:43.940 --> 00:21:46.559 in lower humidity. And she made a profound biological 00:21:46.559 --> 00:21:49.039 realization as well. She noted that the structure 00:21:49.039 --> 00:21:51.660 did not rely on the specific detailed order of 00:21:51.660 --> 00:21:54.779 the bases. Meaning, as she put it, that an infinite 00:21:54.779 --> 00:21:57.240 variety of nucleotide sequences would be possible. 00:21:57.710 --> 00:21:59.990 This speaks directly to the mechanism of genetic 00:21:59.990 --> 00:22:02.690 variability, an insight that was entirely her 00:22:02.690 --> 00:22:06.009 own, derived from her data. She and Gosling actually 00:22:06.009 --> 00:22:10.009 wrote a draft manuscript on March 17, 1953, confirming 00:22:10.009 --> 00:22:12.430 that their data was fully consistent with a multi 00:22:12.430 --> 00:22:14.589 -chain helix structure. And this was the day 00:22:14.589 --> 00:22:16.630 before the news arrived at King's that the Cambridge 00:22:16.630 --> 00:22:19.170 model had been completed. They were that close. 00:22:19.430 --> 00:22:22.210 The key gap she hadn't yet bridged was the specific 00:22:22.210 --> 00:22:25.160 complementary base pairing. the adenine -thymine 00:22:25.160 --> 00:22:27.480 -guanine -cytosine lock -and -key mechanism. 00:22:27.799 --> 00:22:30.039 That was the breakthrough Watson and Crick made 00:22:30.039 --> 00:22:33.119 on February 28. Once they had Franklin's geometric 00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:36.039 clues from the photo and the report, they rapidly 00:22:36.039 --> 00:22:39.119 synthesized the final, correct structure. They 00:22:39.119 --> 00:22:41.980 finished their physical model on March 7, 1953. 00:22:42.779 --> 00:22:45.339 And the famed trio of papers appeared in the 00:22:45.339 --> 00:22:48.759 journal Nature on April 25, 1953. The order of 00:22:48.759 --> 00:22:50.859 publication was critical. Watson and Crick's 00:22:50.859 --> 00:22:53.180 theoretical model was published first, framing 00:22:53.180 --> 00:22:55.500 it as the discovery. And their acknowledgment 00:22:55.500 --> 00:22:58.140 of Franklin and Wilkins was this muted, almost 00:22:58.140 --> 00:23:00.859 throwaway footnote, stating they were merely 00:23:00.859 --> 00:23:03.980 stimulated by general knowledge of Franklin and 00:23:03.980 --> 00:23:07.869 Wilkins' unpublished contribution. General knowledge. 00:23:07.910 --> 00:23:10.309 It's an incredible understatement. The detailed 00:23:10.309 --> 00:23:12.549 articles by Wilkins and then by Franklin and 00:23:12.549 --> 00:23:15.130 Gosling, the ones containing the actual definitive 00:23:15.130 --> 00:23:18.569 X -ray data and Photo 51, were published second 00:23:18.569 --> 00:23:22.049 and third. A deliberate placement. It made their 00:23:22.049 --> 00:23:24.369 work appear to be supporting evidence for the 00:23:24.369 --> 00:23:27.230 Cambridge theory rather than what it was, the 00:23:27.230 --> 00:23:30.009 foundational empirical data that drove the discovery. 00:23:30.430 --> 00:23:32.569 The ethical implications of that data sharing 00:23:32.569 --> 00:23:34.690 have, of course, fueled decades of discussion. 00:23:35.119 --> 00:23:37.779 Max Perutz later wrote to Science Magazine, trying 00:23:37.779 --> 00:23:40.119 to excuse sharing the confidential MRC report. 00:23:40.319 --> 00:23:42.779 Right. He claimed he was inexperienced and casual 00:23:42.779 --> 00:23:44.940 in administrative matters. That's a pretty thin 00:23:44.940 --> 00:23:48.000 excuse. Regardless of his intent, intellectual 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:50.559 property was shared without the creator's knowledge. 00:23:50.839 --> 00:23:52.819 However, the popular narrative that Franklin 00:23:52.819 --> 00:23:55.039 died completely unaware that her work had been 00:23:55.039 --> 00:23:58.349 used, that's now being challenged. A 2023 analysis 00:23:58.349 --> 00:24:02.170 of an unpublished 1953 Time magazine manuscript, 00:24:02.410 --> 00:24:04.289 which was written in consultation with Franklin 00:24:04.289 --> 00:24:06.710 herself, suggests the discovery was perceived 00:24:06.710 --> 00:24:09.470 at the time as more of a joint effort. Right. 00:24:09.950 --> 00:24:12.250 The manuscript actually stated Franklin was engaged 00:24:12.250 --> 00:24:15.369 in checking the Cavendish model against her own 00:24:15.369 --> 00:24:18.369 X -rays, which implies a degree of collaboration 00:24:18.369 --> 00:24:21.369 in those final stages. And her former colleague, 00:24:21.509 --> 00:24:23.990 Raymond Gosling, he later asserted that Franklin 00:24:23.990 --> 00:24:26.490 did know her work had been used before she died. 00:24:26.690 --> 00:24:28.589 So this suggests that while the initial sharing 00:24:28.589 --> 00:24:30.950 of data was definitely unauthorized, the true 00:24:30.950 --> 00:24:32.630 relationship between the scientists regarding 00:24:32.630 --> 00:24:34.809 the final model was perhaps more cooperative 00:24:34.809 --> 00:24:37.450 in those final few weeks than the sensationalist 00:24:37.450 --> 00:24:40.250 race narrative suggests. What remains undeniable, 00:24:40.390 --> 00:24:43.430 absolutely undeniable, is that without Franklin's 00:24:43.430 --> 00:24:46.089 unparalleled technical rigor, her unique innovation 00:24:46.089 --> 00:24:48.410 with humidity control, and her precise measurements. 00:24:48.569 --> 00:24:51.670 The C2 symmetry, the 34 Angstrom repeat. All 00:24:51.670 --> 00:24:54.069 of it. Without that, the double helix model would 00:24:54.069 --> 00:24:55.869 have been a premature, incorrect speculation. 00:24:56.309 --> 00:24:59.049 Her data forced accuracy onto the world's most 00:24:59.049 --> 00:25:01.460 important biological structure. So given that 00:25:01.460 --> 00:25:03.900 intense, competitive, and ultimately frustrating 00:25:03.900 --> 00:25:06.380 environment at King's College, Franklin made 00:25:06.380 --> 00:25:09.039 a necessary and, I think, a critical move. She 00:25:09.039 --> 00:25:12.779 left. In mid -March 1953, she moved to Birkbeck 00:25:12.779 --> 00:25:15.579 College, recruited by the crystallographer John 00:25:15.579 --> 00:25:18.019 Desmond Bernal. She moved from the well -funded, 00:25:18.099 --> 00:25:20.619 established world of King's to a much more modest 00:25:20.619 --> 00:25:23.819 institution. And her famous quote just captures 00:25:23.819 --> 00:25:26.559 this perfectly. She said she was moving from 00:25:26.559 --> 00:25:29.319 a talus to the slums, but pleasanter all the 00:25:29.319 --> 00:25:32.640 same. It really reflects the difficult, cramped 00:25:32.640 --> 00:25:35.480 physical conditions at Birkbeck, but the significantly 00:25:35.480 --> 00:25:37.660 improved collegial and supportive professional 00:25:37.660 --> 00:25:40.019 environment she found there. That intellectual 00:25:40.019 --> 00:25:42.000 and psychological relief must have been immense 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:45.039 for her. Bernal was known for actively promoting 00:25:45.039 --> 00:25:47.500 female crystallographers and for fostering a 00:25:47.500 --> 00:25:50.220 cooperative environment. A stark contrast to 00:25:50.220 --> 00:25:52.819 the restrictive, competitive, and isolating atmosphere 00:25:52.819 --> 00:25:54.980 she had just left behind. It's interesting, though. 00:25:55.039 --> 00:25:57.259 Bernal insisted she switch her research focus 00:25:57.259 --> 00:26:00.160 entirely and stop working on nucleic acids. Right. 00:26:00.279 --> 00:26:02.960 But despite that instruction, she co -published 00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:05.819 one last paper with Gosling and Nature in July 00:26:05.819 --> 00:26:10.180 1953. She did. It confirmed that ADNA also had 00:26:10.180 --> 00:26:12.880 a double helix structure. up on the Cambridge 00:26:12.880 --> 00:26:15.700 announcement. It was really a final closing of 00:26:15.700 --> 00:26:18.059 the chapter, asserting her own empirical proof. 00:26:18.339 --> 00:26:20.460 But this shift in focus launched her into her 00:26:20.460 --> 00:26:22.759 second major field of scientific contribution, 00:26:23.180 --> 00:26:26.299 structural virology. At Birkbeck, she established 00:26:26.299 --> 00:26:28.779 her own research group and pioneered work on 00:26:28.779 --> 00:26:31.039 the molecular structures of viruses. Specifically, 00:26:31.220 --> 00:26:34.940 the tobacco mosaic virus, or TMV. Which is an 00:26:34.940 --> 00:26:37.619 RNA virus. And it was a notoriously difficult 00:26:37.619 --> 00:26:40.720 subject for x -ray analysis. A perfect fit for 00:26:40.720 --> 00:26:43.400 Franklin. given her success with amorphous carbon 00:26:43.400 --> 00:26:46.779 and coal. She began a highly successful and longstanding 00:26:46.779 --> 00:26:49.299 collaboration with Aaron Klug, who had just earned 00:26:49.299 --> 00:26:52.859 his Ph .D. and joined Birkbeck in 1953. And this 00:26:52.859 --> 00:26:54.859 really marks the beginning of modern structural 00:26:54.859 --> 00:26:57.920 virology. Her key findings on TMV started rolling 00:26:57.920 --> 00:27:01.380 out in 1955. She definitively proved that all 00:27:01.380 --> 00:27:03.859 TMV virus particles were of the same precise 00:27:03.859 --> 00:27:06.539 length, an observation that contradicted the 00:27:06.539 --> 00:27:09.119 established eminent virologist Norman Puri. But 00:27:09.119 --> 00:27:11.230 what she proved was empirically correct using 00:27:11.230 --> 00:27:14.329 her perfected x -ray techniques. This wasn't 00:27:14.329 --> 00:27:16.309 just a technical correction. It was a fundamental 00:27:16.309 --> 00:27:19.250 shift in understanding how viruses assemble and 00:27:19.250 --> 00:27:21.869 reproduce. She showed the uniformity and the 00:27:21.869 --> 00:27:24.150 rigid structure of these particles. Her work 00:27:24.150 --> 00:27:27.259 deepened really quickly. In 1956, working with 00:27:27.259 --> 00:27:29.500 Kenneth Holmes, her group discovered that the 00:27:29.500 --> 00:27:32.700 protein covering of TMV was made of protein molecules 00:27:32.700 --> 00:27:35.759 arranged not haphazardly, but in a tight helix. 00:27:35.839 --> 00:27:38.140 And then the very next year, collaborating with 00:27:38.140 --> 00:27:40.440 Donald Kaspar, they made the definitive structural 00:27:40.440 --> 00:27:44.579 finding. The RNA inside the TMV is wound along 00:27:44.579 --> 00:27:47.000 the inner surface of the hollow protein cylinder. 00:27:47.359 --> 00:27:49.900 This explained the full molecular architecture 00:27:49.900 --> 00:27:52.400 of the virus. That is just an immense body of 00:27:52.400 --> 00:27:54.720 work to complete in just a few years. It is. 00:27:54.839 --> 00:27:57.339 And it connects directly back to her early expertise. 00:27:57.680 --> 00:28:00.420 She moved from solving the messy structure of 00:28:00.420 --> 00:28:03.279 carbon to solving the equally messy, complex 00:28:03.279 --> 00:28:05.859 biological structure of the virus. And her reputation 00:28:05.859 --> 00:28:08.000 was growing rapidly on the strength of this work. 00:28:08.160 --> 00:28:11.160 In 1957, she secured a massive grant, $10 ,000. 00:28:11.119 --> 00:28:13.500 from the U .S. Public Health Service of the NIH 00:28:13.500 --> 00:28:16.420 to research the poliovirus structure. This was 00:28:16.420 --> 00:28:19.019 the largest research fund Birkbeck had ever received 00:28:19.019 --> 00:28:21.920 at that time, a real testament to her standing 00:28:21.920 --> 00:28:24.880 in the global scientific community. Tragically, 00:28:24.940 --> 00:28:27.940 this final ambitious project on the poliovirus 00:28:27.940 --> 00:28:30.880 was forced to end because of her rapidly failing 00:28:30.880 --> 00:28:33.500 health. Franklin was diagnosed with ovarian cancer 00:28:33.500 --> 00:28:37.200 in mid -1956. While exposure to X -ray radiation 00:28:37.200 --> 00:28:39.680 is always considered a possible factor for scientists 00:28:39.680 --> 00:28:42.799 in the 1950s, it's also noted that gynecological 00:28:42.799 --> 00:28:45.920 cancer incidence is particularly high among women 00:28:45.920 --> 00:28:48.940 of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage, which was her background. 00:28:49.529 --> 00:28:51.490 The dedication she showed even while she was 00:28:51.490 --> 00:28:53.950 undergoing aggressive treatment is just staggering. 00:28:54.170 --> 00:28:57.369 Her group published seven papers in 1956. And 00:28:57.369 --> 00:29:00.170 six more in 1957. She literally worked until 00:29:00.170 --> 00:29:02.559 she could no longer stand. Her final professional 00:29:02.559 --> 00:29:05.200 engagement was highly symbolic. She was invited 00:29:05.200 --> 00:29:07.579 to build a five -foot -high model of the tobacco 00:29:07.579 --> 00:29:10.759 mosaic virus for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair, 00:29:10.960 --> 00:29:13.539 Expo 58. And she used these mundane materials, 00:29:13.900 --> 00:29:16.299 table tennis balls, plastic bicycle handlebar 00:29:16.299 --> 00:29:19.299 grips, to create this stunning visual representation 00:29:19.299 --> 00:29:21.880 of the helical virus structure she had discovered. 00:29:22.140 --> 00:29:26.140 That exhibit opened on April 17, 1958. The day 00:29:26.140 --> 00:29:28.809 after she died. Franklin passed away on April 00:29:28.809 --> 00:29:32.670 16, 1958, at the age of 37, of bronchopneumonia, 00:29:32.789 --> 00:29:36.009 secondary carcinomatosis, and ovarian cancer. 00:29:36.210 --> 00:29:39.190 And that term, secondary carcinomatosis, just 00:29:39.190 --> 00:29:41.710 for clarity, it refers to the widespread growth 00:29:41.710 --> 00:29:43.990 of cancerous tumors that originated elsewhere. 00:29:44.410 --> 00:29:47.390 It means the ovarian cancer had metastasized 00:29:47.390 --> 00:29:49.990 throughout her body. But despite that horrific 00:29:49.990 --> 00:29:52.930 diagnosis, her final years were marked by this 00:29:52.930 --> 00:29:56.250 just incredible scientific output. In a final 00:29:56.250 --> 00:29:58.890 poignant note about her personal legacy, her 00:29:58.890 --> 00:30:01.910 colleague and collaborator, Aaron Klug, was the 00:30:01.910 --> 00:30:04.420 principal beneficiary in her will. He received 00:30:04.420 --> 00:30:08.359 3 ,000 pounds and her Austin car. It speaks volumes 00:30:08.359 --> 00:30:10.859 about the close working relationship and friendship 00:30:10.859 --> 00:30:13.039 that had developed between them. So Franklin's 00:30:13.039 --> 00:30:15.940 untimely death in 1958, combined with the very 00:30:15.940 --> 00:30:18.279 stringent rules of the Nobel Committee, permanently 00:30:18.279 --> 00:30:20.619 cemented the controversy surrounding the 1962 00:30:20.619 --> 00:30:23.400 Nobel Prize. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or 00:30:23.400 --> 00:30:25.500 Medicine, which was awarded to Crick, Watson, 00:30:25.680 --> 00:30:27.920 and Wilkins. The primary reason for her exclusion 00:30:27.920 --> 00:30:30.400 is simple, but it's absolute. The Nobel rules 00:30:30.400 --> 00:30:33.039 prohibit posthumous nominations. They do not 00:30:33.039 --> 00:30:35.839 award it to the dead. And the prize can also 00:30:35.839 --> 00:30:38.660 only be divided among a maximum of three people. 00:30:38.720 --> 00:30:41.559 So she was ineligible simply because she had 00:30:41.559 --> 00:30:43.940 died four years prior to the announcement. And 00:30:43.940 --> 00:30:46.220 there's another factor. The Nobel Committee often 00:30:46.220 --> 00:30:49.039 waits until a scientific discovery has been thoroughly, 00:30:49.180 --> 00:30:51.680 undeniably proven and applied. Right. During 00:30:51.680 --> 00:30:54.380 her lifetime, the DNA structure was still contested 00:30:54.380 --> 00:30:57.140 in some circles. The committee waited until significant 00:30:57.140 --> 00:31:00.019 experimental proof of replication was established. 00:31:00.400 --> 00:31:02.400 Specifically, the Miselson -Stahl experiment. 00:31:02.660 --> 00:31:05.680 Exactly, which was established between 1958 and 00:31:05.680 --> 00:31:09.180 1961. This final definitive evidence provided 00:31:09.180 --> 00:31:12.619 the necessary impetus for the 1962 award. But 00:31:12.619 --> 00:31:15.480 the irony, the profound irony. doesn't stop with 00:31:15.480 --> 00:31:18.980 DNA. Her former colleague, Aaron Klug, the principal 00:31:18.980 --> 00:31:21.759 beneficiary in her will, he went on to win the 00:31:21.759 --> 00:31:24.460 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. And his award 00:31:24.460 --> 00:31:27.119 was for his work on virus structures and nucleic 00:31:27.119 --> 00:31:29.779 acid protein complexes. The exact field Franklin 00:31:29.779 --> 00:31:31.900 pioneered and introduced him to at Birkbeck. 00:31:32.079 --> 00:31:34.339 It is highly plausible, if not nearly certain, 00:31:34.480 --> 00:31:36.700 that had she lived, she would have shared the 00:31:36.700 --> 00:31:39.619 1982 Nobel Prize with Klug for her pioneering 00:31:39.619 --> 00:31:42.460 work in structural virology. It would have cemented 00:31:42.460 --> 00:31:45.470 a second. Nobel -level contribution to science. 00:31:45.630 --> 00:31:47.849 The controversy that really dominated the narrative 00:31:47.849 --> 00:31:50.170 for decades, though, it wasn't ignited by the 00:31:50.170 --> 00:31:53.049 Nobel exclusion itself. It was ignited by James 00:31:53.049 --> 00:31:55.470 Watson's memoir, The Double Helix, which was 00:31:55.470 --> 00:31:58.349 published in 1968. And that book is often cited 00:31:58.349 --> 00:32:01.769 as the root of what Franklin's own sister later 00:32:01.769 --> 00:32:05.039 dubbed the Rosalind industry. of controversy 00:32:05.039 --> 00:32:07.980 watson's memoir was immensely popular but it 00:32:07.980 --> 00:32:10.640 was also highly subjective while he praised her 00:32:10.640 --> 00:32:13.059 intellect he simultaneously portrayed her as 00:32:13.059 --> 00:32:15.940 quote difficult to work with and famously he 00:32:15.940 --> 00:32:17.759 repeatedly referred to her by the nickname she 00:32:17.759 --> 00:32:21.299 hated rosie a name that was used behind her back 00:32:21.299 --> 00:32:24.619 at kings never to her face And we have to analyze 00:32:24.619 --> 00:32:27.339 why that narrative was so effective. It defined 00:32:27.339 --> 00:32:30.460 her legacy for a whole generation as this brilliant 00:32:30.460 --> 00:32:33.220 but temperamental, almost shrewish counterpoint 00:32:33.220 --> 00:32:35.960 to the swashbuckling model builders. Francis 00:32:35.960 --> 00:32:38.200 Crick himself later admitted that he and Watson 00:32:38.200 --> 00:32:40.599 adopted a patronizing attitude toward her while 00:32:40.599 --> 00:32:42.980 they were at King's. And this narrative immediately 00:32:42.980 --> 00:32:46.480 sparked criticism. The biographer Anne Sayre 00:32:46.480 --> 00:32:49.759 published a counter -narrative in 1975, arguing 00:32:49.759 --> 00:32:52.279 that Franklin was a victim of institutional sexism 00:32:52.279 --> 00:32:54.940 at King's. And she cited details like the segregated 00:32:54.940 --> 00:32:58.140 dining facilities for men and women and her father's 00:32:58.140 --> 00:33:01.039 initial resistance to her academic path. However, 00:33:01.220 --> 00:33:04.839 this narrative of severe, pervasive sexism is 00:33:04.839 --> 00:33:08.460 itself a complex historical debate. It is. Franklin's 00:33:08.460 --> 00:33:10.839 sister, Jennifer Glenn, and colleagues like Crick 00:33:10.839 --> 00:33:13.660 and J .D. Bernal, they disputed this. They stated 00:33:13.660 --> 00:33:16.259 her parents fully supported her career and insisted 00:33:16.259 --> 00:33:18.940 Franklin was never a feminist in the social activist 00:33:18.940 --> 00:33:22.019 sense. They argued that Watson's one -sided personal 00:33:22.019 --> 00:33:25.000 memoir was the true culprit in generating the 00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:27.460 controversy, not necessarily the entire structure 00:33:27.460 --> 00:33:29.759 of the institution alone. But regardless of whether 00:33:29.759 --> 00:33:32.059 the institutional culture was purely sexist or 00:33:32.059 --> 00:33:34.160 just fundamentally competitive and poorly managed. 00:33:34.359 --> 00:33:36.900 And it was likely a toxic mix of all three. It 00:33:36.900 --> 00:33:39.619 was, but the historical consensus has recognized 00:33:39.619 --> 00:33:42.160 the inadequacy of the original credit given to 00:33:42.160 --> 00:33:45.440 her. The Nobel was awarded for the body of work 00:33:45.440 --> 00:33:47.940 on nucleic acids, yet the essential empirical 00:33:47.940 --> 00:33:51.400 foundation was Franklin's crystallographic data. 00:33:51.880 --> 00:33:54.819 And recognizing this profound historical oversight, 00:33:55.200 --> 00:33:58.619 there has been a massive wave of posthumous recognition 00:33:58.619 --> 00:34:01.339 aimed at correcting the public record. Right. 00:34:01.480 --> 00:34:04.559 To ensure her enduring impact is fully recognized. 00:34:04.839 --> 00:34:07.359 And this correction is visible globally now. 00:34:07.519 --> 00:34:11.130 In 2004, The Finch University of Health Sciences 00:34:11.130 --> 00:34:13.730 in Illinois was renamed the Rosalind Franklin 00:34:13.730 --> 00:34:15.969 University of Medicine and Science. And they 00:34:15.969 --> 00:34:18.710 actually use a stylized version of Photo 51 as 00:34:18.710 --> 00:34:20.789 the university's official logo. It's right there. 00:34:20.949 --> 00:34:23.730 The European Space Agency named its ExoMars rover 00:34:23.730 --> 00:34:27.130 after her in 2019. Numerous academic buildings 00:34:27.130 --> 00:34:29.210 bear her name at universities all across the 00:34:29.210 --> 00:34:32.170 UK, cementing her as a scientific icon for future 00:34:32.170 --> 00:34:34.289 generations. The Royal Society, which is the 00:34:34.289 --> 00:34:36.710 UK's National Academy of Science, established 00:34:36.710 --> 00:34:39.340 the prestigious Rosalind Franklin Award. in 2003. 00:34:39.659 --> 00:34:41.980 It comes with a significant grant and is specifically 00:34:41.980 --> 00:34:44.239 aimed at supporting and recognizing women in 00:34:44.239 --> 00:34:47.159 the natural sciences. And perhaps the most symbolic 00:34:47.159 --> 00:34:49.380 act of correction happened recently in Cambridge. 00:34:49.719 --> 00:34:53.360 In 2023, the famous blue plaque on the Eagle 00:34:53.360 --> 00:34:56.239 Pub. The alleged site where Watson and Crick 00:34:56.239 --> 00:34:58.400 announced they had found the secret of life. 00:34:58.679 --> 00:35:02.059 That plaque was physically replaced. The new 00:35:02.059 --> 00:35:04.489 plaque now includes her name. right alongside 00:35:04.489 --> 00:35:07.210 Crick and Watson, finally correcting the historical 00:35:07.210 --> 00:35:09.690 omission at the location most associated with 00:35:09.690 --> 00:35:11.829 the discovery. Her legacy is now successfully 00:35:11.829 --> 00:35:14.449 crossing from academia into popular culture. 00:35:14.650 --> 00:35:17.489 She appears in plays, documentaries, even major 00:35:17.489 --> 00:35:19.750 commercial advertisements, ensuring that the 00:35:19.750 --> 00:35:22.309 full breadth of her contribution, not just to 00:35:22.309 --> 00:35:24.989 DNA, but to structural virology and carbon science, 00:35:25.210 --> 00:35:27.809 is finally becoming visible to the public. So 00:35:27.809 --> 00:35:30.130 if we synthesize this deep dive, we see a career 00:35:30.130 --> 00:35:32.730 that was just remarkably successful across multiple 00:35:33.230 --> 00:35:35.869 Very difficult disciplines. Right. She established 00:35:35.869 --> 00:35:38.489 the foundational, lasting structure of coal and 00:35:38.489 --> 00:35:41.050 graphite. She pioneered the molecular architecture 00:35:41.050 --> 00:35:44.150 of RNA viruses, establishing the field that led 00:35:44.150 --> 00:35:46.550 directly to a future Nobel Prize for her colleague. 00:35:46.789 --> 00:35:48.670 And, of course, she provided the definitive empirical 00:35:48.670 --> 00:35:51.230 evidence that cracked the structure of DNA. She 00:35:51.230 --> 00:35:53.389 was a scientist who was defined by her scientific 00:35:53.389 --> 00:35:56.639 philosophy. She was fiercely committed to rigorous 00:35:56.639 --> 00:35:59.360 experimental data over theoretical speculation. 00:35:59.860 --> 00:36:02.559 Her mantra was always to let the spots on the 00:36:02.559 --> 00:36:05.079 photograph speak for themselves. And that rigor 00:36:05.079 --> 00:36:07.800 forced accuracy onto one of the 20th century's 00:36:07.800 --> 00:36:10.179 most significant discoveries. And here's the 00:36:10.179 --> 00:36:12.619 profound paradox that really defines her narrative. 00:36:13.039 --> 00:36:15.980 Franklin's brilliant adherence to absolute empirical 00:36:15.980 --> 00:36:18.960 proof ensured that the theoretical double helix 00:36:18.960 --> 00:36:21.719 model developed by Watson and Crick was fundamentally 00:36:21.719 --> 00:36:36.190 accurate. This leads us to a final provocative 00:36:36.190 --> 00:36:38.210 thought for you to consider. When discussing 00:36:38.210 --> 00:36:40.869 her worldview back in 1940, Franklin rejected 00:36:40.869 --> 00:36:43.849 the concept of faith in an afterlife. She stated 00:36:43.849 --> 00:36:46.190 that her own faith lay entirely in the future 00:36:46.190 --> 00:36:48.530 and fate of our successors. Given the immense 00:36:48.530 --> 00:36:51.210 infrastructure, the scientific awards, and the 00:36:51.210 --> 00:36:54.030 widespread cultural recognition, now universally 00:36:54.030 --> 00:36:57.250 correcting the historical oversight. Do you feel 00:36:57.250 --> 00:36:59.530 that her faith in the enduring legacy of scientific 00:36:59.530 --> 00:37:02.829 discovery was ultimately and quite spectacularly 00:37:02.829 --> 00:37:05.929 vindicated? Her story is a vital lesson in the 00:37:05.929 --> 00:37:08.090 complexities of scientific credit, institutional 00:37:08.090 --> 00:37:10.429 culture, and personal dynamics in the mid -20th 00:37:10.429 --> 00:37:12.829 century. If you want to dive deeper into the 00:37:12.829 --> 00:37:14.889 dynamics of that race, start with the specific 00:37:14.889 --> 00:37:17.510 technical details of Photo 51 and the mathematical 00:37:17.510 --> 00:37:19.030 debates it continues to spark.