|
The world observes November 25 as the Day for Prevention of Violence against
women. Sexual harassment can be either physical or mental. Crediting another
with a discovery because of gender is also a form of sexual harassment. While
the world is eagerly awaiting the Nobel awardees, it is time to remind the world
of the real inventor.
Deoxyribonucleic Acid, more commonly known as DNA, is the foundation of life.
It is the language in which the secret of life is written and the support in
which it is preserved. The cell machinery, able to understand the Genetic Code,
or language of life, can read this volume and then build the units that shape
and make up a cell. The association of cells of the same or different kind makes
up the organs of our bodies.
There is much more than a blueprint for the construction of a living organism
in the DNA, but holding the master plan is one of its main characteristics. For
more than five thousand years, life kept its secret and, until the 20th century,
several unsuccessful hypotheses were made to explain how life originates from
the union of man and woman. Some of them seem very incredible today, but in
their time, they were as respectable as DNA is today.
This year we celebrate the 55th anniversary of the revelation by James Watson
and Francis Crick of the double helical structure of the DNA molecule. Watson
and Crick were awarded the Nobel Prize for physiology in 1962. Well, thats what
most biology books teach. The real story is somewhat different.
In fact, three scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize: James Watson, Francis
Crick and Maurice Wilkins. But one essential contributor to this discovery that
would revolutionize biology as it is being understood now was forgotten, not
only because of a premature death but because this contributor was a woman:
Rosalind Elsie Franklin.
Rosalind Franklin was born in London in 1920. She was 15 when she decided to
follow in the footsteps of Marie Curie, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.
The 100th anniversary of this event, of the Nobel Prize being awarded to a woman
for the first time, is also being celebrated this year. Although she wanted to
make a career in what was then essentially a mans field, this was not
extraordinary; her family accounted for several powerful and influential women
working with the scientific committee in the 1930s in central London.
In those days, female scientists were still a rarity, and she had to fight
hard to get her position. She went to one of the few girls schools in London
that taught physics and chemistry. Despite her relative failureshe didnt get a
first when graduating in 1941she was offered a grant in Cambridge and presented
her PhD in 1945.
Rosalind spent three years in Paris, where she learned the technique that
would allow the elucidation of the DNA structure: X-ray diffraction. Back in
England in 1951, she worked as a research associate in John Randalls laboratory
at Kings College in Cambridge. It was Randall who gave the project to work on
the structure of the DNA to Rosalind. At this time Maurice Wilkins, who was also
working on DNA structure in Randalls lab but in a different research group,
believed she was only a technical assistant, whilst Rosalind thought they were
equals. This misunderstanding would damage their relationship for years.
It must be said that in those days, science was led by men. Even the college
dining room was accessible only to men, as was the pub where scientists would
meet after work. Rosalind was appalled by this institutionalized isolation of
women scientists and rejected it strongly. She was not an easy woman, according
to her male colleagues and scientific competitors, and had a reputation as the
Iron Lady.
Early in 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick had been working for many years
on the structure of the DNA molecules. They were near the solution, but still
lacking the information that would solve the puzzle. At that time, many
scientists were working on the same topic, and the competition was fierce. Linus
Pauling, who would twice be awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry and Peace, was
one of them. Alarmed by a paper presented by Linus Pauling on the structure of
the DNA, Watson went to Kings College to meet with his collaborator Maurice
Wilkins. In Randalls lab, Watson couldnt find Wilkins but bumped into
Rosalind. It seems they too had an argument (according to Anna Piper, a friend
and colleague of Rosalind). Wilkins finally arrived and took Watson aside in his
office, where he showed him X-ray pictures taken by Rosalind and one of her
X-ray photographs actually showed the double-helix shape. This gesture of good
faith, done without Rosalinds knowledge, triggered Watsons immediate
understanding of the secret of the structure of the DNA molecules and this
allowed Watson and Crick to finally model DNA. On April 25, 1953, Watson JD and
Crick FHC published the structure of the DNA in Nature 171:737-738. Rosalinds
work was also published in the same issue, on page 740.
She kept working on the structure of DNA and on the Tobacco Mosaic Virus and
published several articles and papers when working at Birkbeck College. She fell
ill and died of ovarian cancer at age 37 in 1958, four years before the Nobel
Prize was awarded to her competitors with whom she finally made peace. Doctors
say she contracted cancer because of her work with X-rays with which she took
pictures. The X-ray she used to discover the secret of life probably killed her,
caused probably by the lack of adequate protection or shielding from the
radiation in the lab.
Watson at last acknowledged her contribution in the last two paragraphs of
the epilogue of his book: We both came to appreciate greatly her personal
honesty and generosity, realizing years too late the struggles that the
intelligent woman faces to be accepted by a scientific world which often regards
women as mere diversion from serious thinking.
As the Nobel prizes are given this year, remember Rosalind Elsie Franklin and
resolve to make sure this fate never befalls woman scientists and researchers of
today.
Deepa Kandaswamy
The author is the founder-moderator of the IndianWISE e-group
maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in
The author is the founder-moderator of the IndianWISE e-group.
(c) Deepa Kandaswamy. First Indian serial rights, CyberMedia 2008.
Any quotes or reprints from this article must link to this article and credit author Deepa Kandaswamy and Dataquest.
This article may not be distributed or resold in any manner without written consent from the author.
Page(s) 1
| 
Print
Comment
Email
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Twitter
