A Capture of DNA’s Structure
One may ask, who am I and what is it that makes me unique? What sets me apart from my peers? In the early 1950’s, a female scientist answered that question on a cellular microscopic level. The answer was the molecular structure of DNA. English chemist and X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin, made a major impact on the ideas in subject to DNA and furthered shaped the field of Biology. Her research on DNA lead to her coworker’s photo, Photo 51, of the DNA structure. That later influenced the contribution of American biologist James Watson and English physicist Francis Crick. According to the research found on the website, famousscientists.org, was born in Notting Hill, London on July 25th, 1920 to an upper-class Jewish family. Her father was an investment banker and her mother was the daughter of a lawyer. From a young age Rosalind Franklin was encouraged by her family to form her own opinions and debates. When she attended private school, she demonstrated her sharp intellect by excelling in multiple languages and more famously known, she excelled in science. She began Highschool when she was
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James Watson, had used most of the information from Franklin presentation and Photo 51 to attempt to build a 3D model of DNA with Francis Crick at Cambridge Cavendish Laboratory. As Petter Portin explains in his article, “The birth and development of the DNA theory of inheritance: Sixty years since the discovery of the structure of DNA,” Watson and Crick used Wilkins, Franklin and Gosling research to create the double helix model that proved accurate in structure to support DNA’s functions, code information on building proteins, auto replicate themselves through complimentary based pairing. The model also later helped to explain how mutation can happen within the nucleotides of DNA. This
Rosalind Franklin: Seeing a woman as a scientist during this time is somewhat rare, so the fact that she has taken up this profession show that she is persistent, dedicated, and smart. The only problem is that she is undervalued because of her gender. She is also very quiet and reserved because she’s in a different country.
In this case, the reward for winning the “competition” is so significant that better opportunities are overlooked and some are left without the aid they need. When Watson and Crick ask Rosalind Franklin’s opinion on their model of DNA, the result they are looking for is far from what they had hoped: “Rosy did not give a hoot about the priority of...
Benjamin Franklin has been without a doubt one of the most relevant individuals in US history. His autobiography gives us a brief but detailed summary of what his life was like and how society worked in the eighteen century. This autobiography gives us many details of how the colonies where and offers and an overall image of the development of British North America which later turned into the United States. Due to the fact that this book was originally written for Franklin's son, the book concentrates in personal information and has very little information about other topics. However, there are some topics that can be extracted from his writings; one of them is gender. Even though, Franklin never talks openly about gender, we can observe how in his writing these roles are clearly assigned. In this paper, we will analyze how Benjamin's Franklin autobiography showcases the importance of gender in the early eighteenth century. Gender can be analyzed in Franklins book by looking at different topics. This given to men and women by society can be seen in the workspace, in the education of each individual, and in the family and family structure.
Benjamin Franklin was a remarkably talented man. He started his life as a printers apprentice, but went much farther then there. He developed things that were far more advanced than the time. Benjamin Franklin's stove for example, for cold winter nights, and bifocal lenses for reading. Franklin tracked storms to help understand the horrible weather endured by the colonies. But gis study of electricity made him mist famous and he was known world wide as the founder of the lightning rod. Not only was Benjamin Franklin helpful in developing ideas for better living, he was also a strong force in developing the new nation of America. Benjamin Franklins political views showed him to be a man who loved freedom and independence. His views towards England gradually changed from like to dislike until he finally
How Watson and Crick’s Discovery of the Structure of DNA Influenced American Industries and Scientific Development in the United States
He was never a president of the United States, nor did he lead any army in a battle. He had no talent in public speaking, preferring to write out his thoughts on paper and for them to be read aloud by others. Yet in his day he was certainly one of the most well known celebrities, beloved in both the United States and through most of Europe. He is Benjamin Franklin, and he has become a symbol of American civilization.
Racism and prejudice have been dominant issues in the United States for many years. Being such a major issue is society, racism is also a major theme in one of the best pieces of American Literature, To Kill A Mockingbird. People, particularly African Americans, have been denied basic human rights such as getting a fair trial, eating in a certain restaurant, or sitting in certain seats of public buses. However, in 1955 a woman named Rosa Parks took a stand, or more correctly took a seat, on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She refused to give her seat to a white man and was arrested for not doing so. The reasons and consequences and the significance of her stand are comparable in many ways to Atticus Finch's stand in To Kill A Mockingbird. Rosa Parks worked for the equality of all people. She was elected secretary of the Montgomery branch of the National Advancement of Colored People, unsuccessfully attempted to vote many times to prove her point of discrimination, and had numerous encounters with bus drivers who discriminated against blacks. She was weary of the discrimination she faced due to the Jim Crow laws, which were laws were intended to prohibit "black[Americans] from mixing with white [Americans]" ("Jim Crow Laws"1). Also, due to the Jim Crow laws, blacks were required to give their seats to white passengers if there were no more empty seats. This is exactly what happened on December 1, 1955. On her way home from work, Rosa Parks refused to give her seat to a white man and was shortly arrested (National Women's Hall of Fame1). Even though she knew what the consequences were for refusing to leave her seat, she decided to take a stand against a wrong that was the norm in society. She knew that she would be arrested, yet she decided that she would try to make a change. Although her arrest would seem like she lost her battle, what followed would be her victory. Rosa Parks's stand was so significant that she is called the mother of the civil rights movement (National Women's Hall of Fame1). Her arrest served as a catalyst for a massive boycott for public busses. Led by Martin Luther King, for 381 days, African Americans carpooled, walked, or found other ways of transportation. Despite the harassment everyone involved in the movement faced, the boycott continued and was extremely successful.
Do you know why Rosa Parks is a hero? She helped a lot in this world and if it wasn’t for her our world would still be like in the old times. When she stated, “The only tired I was, was tired of giving in” (Parks cover), that’s when she decided to do something for her and her people. “When that happened, we black people were supposed to give up our seats to the whites. But I didn’t move”, this is how it all started (Parks pg. 1). Rosa Parks was a hero because she made change in the civil-rights movement, compelled to end segregation.
Benjamin Franklin was one of the most significant figures during the 18th century. The significance of Benjamin Franklin can be observed through his contributions to society. Such contributions include his profession as a printer, the creation of the first subscription library, the creation of Poor Richard’s Almanac, and his experiments with electricity. In addition, Franklin also tried to reconcile the differences between England and America, and when that proved futile, he traveled to France in an attempt to convince the French to support America in their quest for independence from England. At one point in time Benjamin Franklin was the most famous American on the planet.
"The discovery of the structure by Crick and Watson, with all its biological implications, has been one of the major scientific events of this century." (Bragg, The Double Helix, p1) In the story of The Double Helix, James Watson tells of the road that led to the discovery of life's basic building block-DNA. This autobiography gives insight into science and the workings within a professional research laboratory that few members of society will ever be able to experience. It also gives the reader an idea of the reality of life for one scientist and how he struggled with the problem of DNA. However, the author's style is marked by his lack of objectivity and inclusion of many biased opinions and personal prejudices.
James D. Watson is a molecular biologist, geneticist and zoologist. He is well known as one of the two men who discovered DNA. The other man who helped discover DNA is Francis Crick. Francis is a biologist, neurologist and a biophysicist.
Dorothy Parker who was born Dorothy Rothschild was born on August 22, 1893 in Long Branch, New Jersey were her parents Jacob and Eliza Rothschild owned a summer cottage. She grow up in Manhattan, New York, were her parents wanted her to be considered a New Yorker. Her mother Eliza died July of 1898 just before Dorothy turned five. Her father Jacob remarried in 1900 to a woman named Eleanor Francis Lewis. Dottie as she was also known as claimed her father was being physically abusive to her because she refused to call her stepmother by “mother” or “stepmother” and referred to her instead as “the housekeeper”. In 1903 Eleanor died when Dorothy was nine. Her father then sent her to attend Miss Dana’s School in Morristown, New Jersey which she graduated from in 1911 at the age of eighteen. Her father passed away two years later in 1913. Dottie went on to play piano at a dance school to make money. She sold her first poem to Vanity Fair and a few months later was hired as an editorial assistant for Vogue magazine. After two years at Vogue she left for a job as a staff writer for Vanity Fair. In 1917 she went on to marry Edwin Pond Parker II a Wall Street stock broker, but they were soon separated by his army services during World War I.
Benjamin Franklin was an inventor, scientist, writer, statesman, printer, musician, philosopher, and much much more. Benjamin Franklin is best known as an inventor and scientist, however. In 1752, he conducted (no pun intended) a kite experiment. Ben was also one of America’s founding fathers. He helped draft the Declaration of Independance and the United States Constitution. He also negotiated the Treaty of Paris which concluded the Revolutionary War.
Simply put, DNA contains the instructions needed for an organism to develop, survive, and reproduce. The discovery and use of DNA has seen many changes and made great progress over many years. James Watson was a pioneer molecular biologist who is credited, along with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, with discovering the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. The three won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1962 for their work (Bagley, 2013). Scientists use the term “double helix” to describe DNA’s winding, two-stranded chemical structure.
The Double Helix tells a tale of fierce competition, perseverance, and scientific innovation as we follow James Watson and his cohort Francis Crick on their quest to discover the secret to life, the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid. Although already fascinated with DNA, Watson struggled with finding chemistry exciting enough to learn it in depth. He had studied birds in college and thereby managed to avoid any formal chemistry or physics courses. As he later pursued a PhD in biochemistry, he realized he could put it off no longer and attempted to learn organic chemistry at Indiana University. However, after a mishap in the lab, he was encouraged instead to study nucleic acid chemistry with Herman Kalckar in Copenhagen. There, his mind strayed from his work and he began doing unauthorized research in the lab of Ole Maaløe, studying phages. Herman stopped teaching Watson after going through a divorce with his wife, and sent Watson off to a scientific conference in Naples. Although he was bored by many of the lectures, Maurice Wilkins’s talk about X-ray diffraction fascinated Watson. He was struck by an X-ray diffraction picture of DNA that Maurice presented and was determined to study the acid. He later got to know more about Maurice’s colleague, Rosalind Franklin, who was proud, stubborn, and very difficult to work with. Watson greatly admired the lecture given by the renowned Linus Pauling, who had discovered the structure of the alpha-helix and was thought of as the leader in DNA research in the scientific world.