"You look at science (or at least talk of it) as some sort of demoralising invention of man, something apart from real life, and which must be cautiously guarded and kept separate from everyday existence. But science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated." -- British chemist Dr. Rosalind Franklin, in a letter to her father. Franklin's work as an X-ray crystallographer was instrumental to the discovery of DNA's molecular structure. Sadly, she passed away in 1958 at age 37 from cancer before receiving credit for her role in the monumental discovery, earning her the posthumous reference as the "forgotten heroine."
Francis Crick and James Watson shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for their work in understanding DNA (the Nobel Committee didn't award prizes posthumously). Her work on the molecular structures of viruses was continued by her colleague Aaron Klug, who won the 1982 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, another honor she would have shared had she not died earlier.
(photo: Dr. Franklin and the first photo of DNA)
