Do You See What I See? – Rosalind Franklin

Rosalind Franklin is best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA which led to discovery of the DNA double helix.

Rosalind made incredible advances in X-ray diffraction techniques with DNA. She adjusted her equipment to produce an extremely fine beam of x-rays. She extracted finer DNA fibers than ever before and arranged them in parallel bundles. And she studied the fibers’ reactions to humid conditions. All of these allowed her to discover crucial keys to DNA’s structure. One of her X-ray diffraction pictures of the “B” form of DNA, known as Photograph 51, became famous as critical evidence in identifying the structure of DNA. The photo was acquired through 100 hours of X-ray exposure from a machine Rosalind herself had refined.

I wanted to depict Rosalind while studying her DNA samples. She must have been incredibly intrigued with her research to put so many hours into it. I wonder if she ever knew herself that her findings would be so significant.

Rosalind Franklin was an English chemist and x-ray crystallographer who made vital contributions to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA.

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