Rosalind Franklin Research Paper

Rosalind Franklin was a famous english chemist and x-ray crystallographer. She is best known for her role in the discovery of the structure of DNA, and for her use of X-ray diffraction. I haven chosen this particular chemist as her work and discoveries have been extremely important in helping to identify the structure and model of DNA.

Rosalind Franklin was born on the 25th of July 1920 in Notting Hill, London to a British Jewish family. She attended several schools including North London Collegiate School where she showed a keen interest in science. She proved to be very intelligent and knew from the age of 15 that she wanted to be a scientist. She was top of her class and won many awards throughout school. In 1938 she attended Newnham College, Cambridge where she studied chemistry. She received a second class honours degree in 1941 which was a sufficient qualification for employment and went to work at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association, where she studied the porosity of coal. In 1946 Franklin moved to Paris, France. She worked in the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'Etat. She was taught X-ray diffraction techniques from Jacques Mering. These techniques Franklin learned played a vital role in her

With her skills, knowledge and experience Franklin was able to improve the X-ray crystallography unit in the college. While working with a student, Raymond Gosling in the laboratory she discovered that there were two forms of DNA. Franklin took high quality photos of crystallised DNA fibres. There were two forms of the fibres, ‘A’ form was dry, short and fat while ‘B’ form was wet, more hydrated long and thin. From these photos Franklin was able to identify the basic structure of DNA strands. The ‘B’ form fibre photograph from the X-ray diffraction picture also known as ‘Photograph 51’, is now famous in identifying the structure of