Ben Kavalec

March 29, 2007

Rosalind Franklin

In my opinion, I believe that Rosalind Franklin did not receive enough credit for

her contributions towards the discovery of DNA. Franklin took Photo 51, and Watson

stole this picture. In my opinion, that is theft, and Watson should have been punished for

what he did, but instead he was rewarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Wilkins, Franklin’s

colleague and Watson’s good friend, stole the work of Franklin’s. Instead of getting

punished, he too was rewarded the coveted Nobel Peace Prize.

If Franklin was bold enough, she would have left King’s College all before

Wilkins stole her work. She not like it at King’s for several reasons: it was segregated

between men and women and there was confusion over who was in charge. The

confusion of who was in charge was probably the reason Wilkins helped out Watson.

Wilkins held a grudge against Franklin that never left.

All her colleagues, and other scientists were cruel to Franklin as she was alive.

The called her by the name of “Rosy”. Franklin took offense to the nickname she

received. Also, the other scientists treated her differently because of the fact that she was

a woman, and they believed that science was a man’s field. During her life, no one

praised Franklin’s work, except for Klug. During his acceptance speech for the Nobel

Peace Prize, Klug admired Franklin’s work on viruses. Unlike Klug, Watson, Crick, and

Wilkins did not mention Franklin’s work, even though what she did was crucial in the

discovery.