DNA The Secret of Photo 51

00:53:45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTMR9SPK4fE

Résumé

TLDRThe documentary highlights the pivotal but historically overlooked role of Rosalind Franklin in discovering the structure of DNA. Though James Watson and Francis Crick are celebrated for the double helix model, their success heavily relied on Franklin's X-ray diffraction photos, particularly Photo 51, which provided key insights into the DNA helix. Franklin, a dedicated scientist, faced gender and institutional challenges and was portrayed negatively in Watson's later accounts. She passed away before DNA's meaning was fully acknowledged, overlooked for the Nobel Prize given to Watson, Crick, and her King’s College colleague Maurice Wilkins. Recent times have seen a resurgence in recognizing her contributions and the injustice she faced. Her work not only revolutionized biology but also paved the way for further discoveries in molecular biology and genetics.

A retenir

  • 🔬 Rosalind Franklin's X-ray diffraction work was pivotal in discovering DNA's structure.
  • 📷 Photo 51 provided crucial evidence of the DNA helix.
  • 👩‍🔬 Franklin worked at King's College, crucial to her DNA findings.
  • ⚖️ Her contributions were initially unrecognized in Watson and Crick's accolades.
  • 🏆 Watson and Crick won the Nobel Prize, partly due to Franklin's data.
  • 📚 Watson's 'The Double Helix' portrayed Franklin negatively.
  • ❌ Franklin was unaware of the full use of her research by peers.
  • 🎓 Franklin also contributed significantly to virus research.
  • 📜 Historical recognition for Franklin has increased posthumously.
  • 👩‍🏫 Franklin's legacy influences women in science today.

Chronologie

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    As World War II concludes, scientists race to uncover the secret of DNA, vital to understanding the blueprint of life. Notably, James Watson, Francis Crick, and Rosalind Franklin work towards this discovery. Franklin’s x-ray photograph will reveal DNA’s structure, essential for genetic inheritance across generations.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    Franklin produces a crucial x-ray photo of DNA, aiding the quest to solve its structure, albeit without her knowledge. Her work is pivotal yet uncredited, leading to significant revelations and perceived injustices in recognizing scientific achievements.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:15:00

    In 1962, Watson, Crick, and Wilkins receive a Nobel Prize for their DNA research. Franklin’s contributions remain largely unsung until Watson's book, "The Double Helix," underscores her role. She’s portrayed unfavorably, although her scientific value is recognized posthumously.

  • 00:15:00 - 00:20:00

    Watson’s depiction of Franklin in "The Double Helix" is controversial. Between 1920-1958, Franklin, part of a prestigious English Jewish family, excels academically, showing interest in social causes. Her brilliance is noted early on, leading to a career in scientific research.

  • 00:20:00 - 00:25:00

    Franklin’s scholarly excellence continues at Cambridge University, enhancing her skills in x-ray crystallography during WWII. Despite familial pressures to follow philanthropic traditions, she chooses science, aiming to improve mankind through her endeavors.

  • 00:25:00 - 00:30:00

    Post-WWII, Franklin secures a Parisian lab position, honing her crystallography skills. In Paris, she finds a supportive scientific community, thriving both personally and professionally. Despite the welcoming environment, Franklin eventually returns to England due to career advice.

  • 00:30:00 - 00:35:00

    In England, Franklin joins King’s College, aiming at DNA’s mysterious structure. Clash and confusion arise between her and Wilkins over research leadership. Undeterred, Franklin makes significant DNA discoveries, including identifying two DNA forms essential for decoding its structure.

  • 00:35:00 - 00:40:00

    While Wilkins struggles with Franklin, her work on DNA rapidly progresses. Discoveries include different DNA forms pivotal to understanding its structure. Meanwhile, Watson and Crick independently pursue their DNA model, relying on indirect insights from Franklin’s findings.

  • 00:40:00 - 00:45:00

    Franklin’s research faces internal challeges. Her work yields significant DNA structural insights, but Wilkins inadvertently shares details with Watson and Crick, who eventually build a model based largely on her data, although they credit her minimally.

  • 00:45:00 - 00:53:45

    Franklin’s photo 51 provides critical insights into DNA’s double helix structure, but is shared without her consent. Despite health challenges, she achieves significant scientific feats. Although her role in DNA’s discovery remains underappreciated, her enduring impact on science is acknowledged.

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Carte mentale

Mind Map

Questions fréquemment posées

  • Who was Rosalind Franklin?

    Rosalind Franklin was a British scientist known for her pioneering work on X-ray diffraction images of DNA, which contributed to understanding its structure.

  • What is DNA's significance?

    DNA is responsible for heredity and is considered the blueprint for every cell in the body.

  • Who were James Watson and Francis Crick?

    James Watson and Francis Crick were scientists who discovered the double helix structure of DNA, largely based on Franklin's research.

  • How did Watson and Crick benefit from Franklin's work?

    Watson and Crick used Franklin's X-ray diffraction data, particularly Photo 51, to develop their DNA model.

  • What was Photo 51?

    Photo 51 was an X-ray diffraction image taken by Rosalind Franklin, providing critical insights into the helical structure of DNA.

  • Why is Rosalind Franklin's contribution controversial?

    Franklin's work was used without her knowledge by Watson and Crick, and she was not credited when they received the Nobel Prize.

  • Where did Franklin complete her most significant work?

    Franklin performed her most significant research at King's College London and later contributed to virus structure research at Birkbeck College.

  • How was Franklin portrayed in Watson's book 'The Double Helix'?

    In 'The Double Helix,' Watson portrayed Franklin in an unflattering light, which was criticized as unjust and inaccurate.

  • What recognition did Franklin receive for her work?

    Posthumously, Franklin has been recognized through awards and memorials, although she did not receive the Nobel Prize.

  • What is the legacy of Rosalind Franklin?

    Franklin's legacy includes groundbreaking contributions to DNA and virus research, influencing future scientific work.

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  • 00:00:05
    as world war
  • 00:00:06
    ii comes to an end scientists discover
  • 00:00:09
    the secret of the atom
  • 00:00:11
    unleashing death and destruction on an
  • 00:00:13
    unimaginable scale
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    now they are racing to discover the
  • 00:00:20
    secret of life
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    it will be the find of the century
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    it's may 1st 1952
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    and what these scientists gathered at
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    the royal society don't know
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    is at this very moment close by
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    in a london lab an x-ray camera is
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    clicking off
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    a 100 hour exposure of something called
  • 00:00:48
    dna
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    when developed this photograph will
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    reveal the structure of dna
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    and the key to understanding how the
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    blueprint for all life on earth
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    is passed down from generation to
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    [Music]
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    generation
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    two of the most determined of the dna
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    detectives
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    are francis crick and an american james
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    watson
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    also at the royal society is a 31
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    year old british scientist named
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    rosalind franklin
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    she is responsible for the crucial x-ray
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    photo
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    as watson crick and their colleague
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    morris wilkins
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    strive to solve the puzzle of dna
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    franklin's work
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    will pave the way
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    [Music]
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    without her knowledge they will gain
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    access to her findings
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    and her remarkable x-ray image of dna
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    it will lead to one of the greatest
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    discoveries in science
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    and some believe to one of its greatest
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    injustices
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    [Music]
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    up next on nova rosalyn franklin
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    and the secret of photo 51.
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    [Music]
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    in 1962 a nobel prize is awarded to
  • 00:02:42
    james watson
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    francis crick and morris wilkins for
  • 00:02:46
    their groundbreaking work on dna
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    it is one of the greatest achievements
  • 00:02:55
    in the history of science
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    often described as the key to unlocking
  • 00:03:00
    the secret of life
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    a few years later james watson publishes
  • 00:03:10
    his personal account of the discovery
  • 00:03:13
    in the double helix this slim
  • 00:03:16
    best-selling book
  • 00:03:17
    he depicts a race to determine the
  • 00:03:19
    structure of dna
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    [Music]
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    and introduces a little-known scientist
  • 00:03:26
    named
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    rosalind franklin
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    i don't think anybody would have heard
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    of rosalind franklin i certainly
  • 00:03:35
    wouldn't have written the book
  • 00:03:36
    unless james watson in 1968 had written
  • 00:03:39
    the double helix
  • 00:03:41
    but in it there's this character the
  • 00:03:43
    terrible rosie this
  • 00:03:44
    bad tempered blue stalking who hoarded
  • 00:03:47
    her data who wouldn't let the men see it
  • 00:03:49
    you know
  • 00:03:49
    and i lashed out at all of them they
  • 00:03:51
    were all terrified of her
  • 00:03:53
    and it really makes the whole story go
  • 00:03:56
    watson's casting of franklin as villain
  • 00:03:59
    works
  • 00:04:00
    as a literary device but who she is in
  • 00:04:02
    his book
  • 00:04:03
    and who she was in real life are quite
  • 00:04:06
    different
  • 00:04:08
    and unfortunately franklin wasn't around
  • 00:04:11
    to defend herself
  • 00:04:13
    she died at the age of 37 a decade
  • 00:04:16
    before the double helix was published
  • 00:04:19
    and became a bestseller
  • 00:04:22
    when the double helix was in rough draft
  • 00:04:25
    harvard university press which was
  • 00:04:27
    planning to publish
  • 00:04:28
    it ask that although so candidly
  • 00:04:30
    mentioned be
  • 00:04:31
    given a chance to read it and they did
  • 00:04:34
    and
  • 00:04:34
    wilkins and crick above all but not only
  • 00:04:37
    objected most strongly as francis crick
  • 00:04:41
    wrote to watson
  • 00:04:43
    your book is misleading and in bad taste
  • 00:04:46
    it does not illuminate the process of
  • 00:04:47
    scientific discovery
  • 00:04:49
    it distorts it maurice wilkins
  • 00:04:52
    complained that the book was
  • 00:04:54
    unfair to almost everyone mentioned
  • 00:04:57
    except professor watson himself
  • 00:05:00
    and referring to rosalind franklin he
  • 00:05:02
    asked watson
  • 00:05:03
    is there any mention in your book that
  • 00:05:06
    she died
  • 00:05:09
    oh well that was what the main thing in
  • 00:05:10
    the objecting to the
  • 00:05:12
    jimmy's book was his portrayal of
  • 00:05:14
    rosalind it was all this silly
  • 00:05:16
    nasty about the wrong clothing or
  • 00:05:18
    something i thought
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    this is a pretty
  • 00:05:22
    name and it not true
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    i mean she was to say the least a very
  • 00:05:29
    presentable person
  • 00:05:33
    who was the real rosalind franklin
  • 00:05:37
    and what is her contribution to one of
  • 00:05:39
    the greatest breakthroughs in science
  • 00:05:46
    rosalind franklin was born in london in
  • 00:05:48
    1920
  • 00:05:49
    into a family that achieved wealth
  • 00:05:51
    through banking and publishing
  • 00:05:53
    they had a proud tradition of
  • 00:05:55
    scholarship philanthropy
  • 00:05:57
    and involvement in social causes
  • 00:05:59
    [Music]
  • 00:06:00
    the franklin family was one of a very
  • 00:06:03
    select group
  • 00:06:04
    of english jews who came to england
  • 00:06:06
    during the 18th century
  • 00:06:08
    they became very wealthy they are very
  • 00:06:10
    close network
  • 00:06:13
    very english in their manner more
  • 00:06:14
    english than the english
  • 00:06:18
    from an early age rosalind stands out
  • 00:06:22
    she enjoys memory games and an ant
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    writes
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    rosalind is alarmingly clever she spends
  • 00:06:29
    all her time doing arithmetic for
  • 00:06:31
    pleasure and
  • 00:06:32
    invariably gets her sums right
  • 00:06:37
    her parents sent her to saint paul's
  • 00:06:39
    girls school
  • 00:06:41
    which despite its name had no church
  • 00:06:43
    affiliation
  • 00:06:44
    what it did have was a strong tradition
  • 00:06:47
    of preparing girls for a career
  • 00:06:50
    sue richly and anne piper attended saint
  • 00:06:53
    paul's
  • 00:06:53
    and were rosalind franklin's lifelong
  • 00:06:56
    friends
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    she was the best at sand she was the
  • 00:06:59
    best at mass and she was just
  • 00:07:02
    one of the best in that yeah the best i
  • 00:07:05
    would say in that year
  • 00:07:07
    she played in the teams and talking
  • 00:07:10
    across
  • 00:07:11
    yes netball cricket she combined
  • 00:07:14
    using her mind play with having a
  • 00:07:17
    certain natural ability
  • 00:07:19
    she always expected that if she
  • 00:07:22
    undertook something
  • 00:07:23
    she would be running it yeah she would
  • 00:07:27
    wish to be expected to be like that
  • 00:07:30
    yes while rosalind excels academically
  • 00:07:35
    the outside world is encroaching the
  • 00:07:38
    nazis are on the march
  • 00:07:40
    [Music]
  • 00:07:42
    as jewish refugees flee the nazi
  • 00:07:45
    onslaught
  • 00:07:46
    the franklins are active in finding safe
  • 00:07:48
    haven in england
  • 00:07:49
    for those who manage to escape
  • 00:07:52
    [Music]
  • 00:07:53
    rosalind is anxious to do something
  • 00:07:55
    useful with her life
  • 00:07:57
    she finishes a year early at saint
  • 00:07:59
    paul's and wins a scholarship to study
  • 00:08:02
    physics and chemistry
  • 00:08:03
    at cambridge university
  • 00:08:06
    in 1938 rosalind arrives here
  • 00:08:09
    at newname college one of the women's
  • 00:08:11
    colleges of cambridge university
  • 00:08:13
    in her classes she's introduced to the
  • 00:08:15
    new subject of x-ray crystallography
  • 00:08:19
    this technique can reveal the hidden
  • 00:08:21
    atomic structure of matter
  • 00:08:22
    in its crystalline form atoms are too
  • 00:08:26
    small to see under light microscopes
  • 00:08:29
    so crystallographers shoot invisible
  • 00:08:31
    x-rays at them
  • 00:08:33
    which then bounce off or diffract onto a
  • 00:08:35
    detector such as film
  • 00:08:38
    by applying math to the diffraction
  • 00:08:40
    pattern it's possible to calculate the
  • 00:08:42
    three-dimensional form
  • 00:08:44
    of even the most complex molecules
  • 00:08:47
    [Music]
  • 00:08:49
    in her x-ray diffraction work rosalind
  • 00:08:51
    joins the small band of the human race
  • 00:08:53
    for whom
  • 00:08:54
    tiny specks of matter are as real as
  • 00:08:56
    billiard balls
  • 00:08:59
    in 1939 as franklin steps into the world
  • 00:09:03
    of science
  • 00:09:04
    cambridge university appoints its first
  • 00:09:06
    female professor
  • 00:09:09
    and britain prepares for the german
  • 00:09:10
    invasion
  • 00:09:11
    [Music]
  • 00:09:13
    by the time she graduates franklin is
  • 00:09:16
    determined to contribute to the war
  • 00:09:18
    effort
  • 00:09:21
    her father pressures her to carry on the
  • 00:09:23
    family's charitable tradition
  • 00:09:25
    she replies that she would be of little
  • 00:09:27
    use in anything but science
  • 00:09:31
    when he accuses her of making science
  • 00:09:33
    her religion she writes
  • 00:09:35
    in my view all that is necessary for
  • 00:09:38
    faith
  • 00:09:39
    is the belief that by doing our best we
  • 00:09:41
    shall succeed in our aims
  • 00:09:44
    the improvement of mankind
  • 00:09:52
    [Music]
  • 00:09:53
    cambridge really did for rosalind
  • 00:09:55
    everything that a good university
  • 00:09:57
    should it gave her a profession a
  • 00:09:59
    philosophy of life
  • 00:10:00
    it enabled her to distance herself from
  • 00:10:02
    her parents she emerged
  • 00:10:04
    a mature socially and politically aware
  • 00:10:07
    individual
  • 00:10:08
    and she was ready to become a working
  • 00:10:10
    scientist
  • 00:10:13
    she joined the war effort doing research
  • 00:10:15
    on coal
  • 00:10:16
    her experiments led to a better gas mask
  • 00:10:19
    a valuable contribution to england under
  • 00:10:21
    attack
  • 00:10:23
    she published five landmark papers still
  • 00:10:26
    cited today
  • 00:10:27
    and she was awarded her phd
  • 00:10:30
    when the war was over her experience
  • 00:10:32
    earned her the job offer of her dreams
  • 00:10:35
    a research position in one of the best
  • 00:10:37
    labs in paris
  • 00:10:39
    [Music]
  • 00:10:43
    one of her closest colleagues and
  • 00:10:45
    friends at the laboratoire
  • 00:10:47
    is vittorio luzati here in a restaurant
  • 00:10:50
    that rosalind enjoyed
  • 00:10:54
    she loved paris she loved life in paris
  • 00:10:57
    that was quite clear she was very happy
  • 00:11:00
    here
  • 00:11:01
    she took a flat on a little street
  • 00:11:03
    behind the church of central peace
  • 00:11:06
    in the sixth orondis mall
  • 00:11:09
    she wore the latest in paris fashion
  • 00:11:11
    dior's new look
  • 00:11:13
    for the new woman
  • 00:11:14
    [Music]
  • 00:11:17
    she shopped in the fresh air markets and
  • 00:11:19
    took great pleasure cooking for her
  • 00:11:20
    friends
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    she walked to work along the sun passing
  • 00:11:25
    in the shadow of notre dame
  • 00:11:27
    to the laboratoire central at 12khz
  • 00:11:33
    it was here in a collegial atmosphere
  • 00:11:36
    that franklin perfected her techniques
  • 00:11:38
    of x-ray diffraction
  • 00:11:44
    she had just a feeling for the work
  • 00:11:47
    for experimental work she loved it she
  • 00:11:50
    loved being in the laboratory
  • 00:11:52
    and a lot of people who were very very
  • 00:11:54
    good scientists and even very good
  • 00:11:55
    experimental scientists
  • 00:11:56
    view that as drudgery that they have to
  • 00:11:58
    get through to get an answer
  • 00:12:00
    where she actually loved the process of
  • 00:12:02
    science
  • 00:12:04
    franklin was gaining an international
  • 00:12:06
    reputation
  • 00:12:07
    speaking at conferences and publishing
  • 00:12:09
    in professional journals
  • 00:12:12
    an avid hiker she took trips with
  • 00:12:14
    colleagues to norway
  • 00:12:16
    wales and the alps
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    [Music]
  • 00:12:22
    her research was not without its risks
  • 00:12:26
    lab workers were periodically checked
  • 00:12:28
    for overexposure to x-rays
  • 00:12:30
    and when franklin exceeded safe levels
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    she was upset
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    that she had to stay away from the lab
  • 00:12:36
    for a few weeks
  • 00:12:42
    after four years in paris she faced a
  • 00:12:44
    decision
  • 00:12:45
    should she stay in france or return home
  • 00:12:48
    to england
  • 00:12:51
    she asked the advice of dorothy hodgkin
  • 00:12:53
    a renowned crystallographer
  • 00:12:55
    and one of only ten women to win a nobel
  • 00:12:58
    prize
  • 00:13:00
    and it was dorothy's advice that it was
  • 00:13:05
    time for her to make up her mind if he
  • 00:13:08
    and if she decided to have her
  • 00:13:11
    scientific life
  • 00:13:12
    in england he should go back
  • 00:13:15
    and she left reluctantly she was not
  • 00:13:18
    very happy to leave
  • 00:13:19
    paris i think that
  • 00:13:22
    the decision she had to make and it was
  • 00:13:24
    to some extent the cruel one
  • 00:13:27
    franklin is offered a position at king's
  • 00:13:30
    college in london
  • 00:13:31
    a highly prestigious research center
  • 00:13:34
    she is hired by jt randall the director
  • 00:13:37
    of the biophysics labs
  • 00:13:39
    to create an x-ray diffraction unit to
  • 00:13:41
    investigate the structure of proteins
  • 00:13:45
    she accepts the offer but writes to a
  • 00:13:47
    friend
  • 00:13:48
    to change the banks of the sen for a
  • 00:13:51
    seller on the strand
  • 00:13:52
    seems to me quite insane
  • 00:13:57
    but as she is leaving paris she receives
  • 00:14:00
    a letter from randall
  • 00:14:01
    shifting her focus from proteins to the
  • 00:14:04
    little understood substance
  • 00:14:06
    called dna
  • 00:14:09
    roslyn franklin is 30 years old as she
  • 00:14:12
    unwittingly enters
  • 00:14:14
    an undeclared race to unravel the secret
  • 00:14:17
    of life
  • 00:14:19
    [Music]
  • 00:14:29
    so this is dna it's really beautiful and
  • 00:14:33
    amazing stuff
  • 00:14:34
    it's responsible for heredity it's the
  • 00:14:37
    genetic material
  • 00:14:39
    some would argue that it's the blueprint
  • 00:14:41
    for every cell in your body
  • 00:14:46
    but at the time when roslyn franklin
  • 00:14:47
    started working on dna
  • 00:14:49
    it wasn't at all clear what dna really
  • 00:14:52
    looked like
  • 00:14:52
    or how it might work
  • 00:14:57
    in 1943 after a decade of work
  • 00:15:00
    oswald avery and his team at rockefeller
  • 00:15:03
    university
  • 00:15:04
    transferred dna from a disease-causing
  • 00:15:07
    strain of bacteria
  • 00:15:08
    into a harmless strain the harmless
  • 00:15:11
    strain
  • 00:15:11
    turned virulent strongly suggesting a
  • 00:15:14
    link between dna
  • 00:15:16
    and heredity
  • 00:15:19
    avery's experiments showed that genetic
  • 00:15:21
    characteristics of one organism could be
  • 00:15:24
    transferred to another
  • 00:15:25
    and he showed that dna was the vehicle
  • 00:15:27
    of that transformation that dna was the
  • 00:15:29
    genetic material
  • 00:15:30
    but that conclusion was by no means
  • 00:15:32
    universally accepted
  • 00:15:35
    dna was thought to consist of sugar and
  • 00:15:38
    phosphates
  • 00:15:39
    in long chains of some unknown shape
  • 00:15:43
    it also appeared to have just four other
  • 00:15:45
    chemical ingredients
  • 00:15:47
    called bases but how could such a simple
  • 00:15:51
    molecule
  • 00:15:52
    be responsible for the diversity of all
  • 00:15:54
    life on earth
  • 00:15:55
    [Music]
  • 00:15:57
    some believe that discovering the
  • 00:15:59
    structure of dna
  • 00:16:00
    would lead to an answer
  • 00:16:03
    [Music]
  • 00:16:04
    that was franklin's assignment when she
  • 00:16:06
    arrives at king's college
  • 00:16:08
    london in january nineteen fifty one
  • 00:16:13
    now a professor at king's raymond
  • 00:16:16
    gosling was a phd
  • 00:16:17
    student in biophysics at the time of
  • 00:16:19
    franklin's arrival
  • 00:16:22
    when i first came in 4950
  • 00:16:26
    what there was was a bomb crater
  • 00:16:30
    uh remains of the second world war
  • 00:16:34
    we had to walk round the bomb crater and
  • 00:16:36
    in here
  • 00:16:37
    to the main hall of the college
  • 00:16:50
    now our physics department was down that
  • 00:16:53
    end
  • 00:16:54
    of this corridor right at the end was an
  • 00:16:56
    ab that rosin and i
  • 00:16:58
    did the x-ray diffraction in
  • 00:17:04
    yes yes now this is quite close
  • 00:17:07
    to what it was actually like this is
  • 00:17:09
    about the size
  • 00:17:12
    of the room and as you see it's right in
  • 00:17:16
    the basement
  • 00:17:18
    so that gives you a sort of taste to the
  • 00:17:20
    bowels of the earth
  • 00:17:22
    type environment in which the early work
  • 00:17:25
    was done
  • 00:17:30
    despite the war war-ravaged facilities
  • 00:17:32
    king's college
  • 00:17:33
    was the place to be for dna research
  • 00:17:37
    morris wilkins has his office just
  • 00:17:40
    through these doors in those days
  • 00:17:44
    morris wilkins a physicist fresh from
  • 00:17:46
    the manhattan project
  • 00:17:48
    took some of the first x-ray diffraction
  • 00:17:50
    images of dna here
  • 00:17:52
    he had to improvise at every step to
  • 00:17:55
    cope with the lab's antiquated
  • 00:17:58
    technology
  • 00:18:01
    franklin quickly adjusted to the
  • 00:18:02
    physical limitations of the lab
  • 00:18:05
    but not to the segregated boys club
  • 00:18:07
    culture
  • 00:18:08
    of king's college
  • 00:18:11
    she was not happy in king's college
  • 00:18:14
    and all what she told us about it was
  • 00:18:17
    almost incredible i mean the fact that
  • 00:18:20
    they have
  • 00:18:21
    a common room a lunch place
  • 00:18:24
    which was forbidden to women i mean that
  • 00:18:27
    sounded
  • 00:18:29
    unheard i mean it was absurd once and
  • 00:18:33
    not the kind of life would you like to
  • 00:18:35
    have anywhere to be forbidden to play
  • 00:18:38
    because you are a dog or a
  • 00:18:41
    only woman it
  • 00:18:44
    to make matters worse there was
  • 00:18:46
    confusion over who was in charge
  • 00:18:48
    franklin or morris wilkins
  • 00:18:51
    at the time of her arrival wilkins was
  • 00:18:53
    on holiday
  • 00:18:54
    while he was gone his phd student
  • 00:18:57
    raymond gosling
  • 00:18:58
    was put under franklin's supervision
  • 00:19:01
    when wilkins returned he walked into a
  • 00:19:03
    vastly improved lab
  • 00:19:05
    but it wasn't his anymore
  • 00:19:08
    he lost his lab and his phd student
  • 00:19:12
    and roslyn franklin whom he thought was
  • 00:19:14
    going to be his assistant
  • 00:19:16
    turned out to be better trained and
  • 00:19:18
    already working independently
  • 00:19:23
    when he checked in on her progress he
  • 00:19:25
    was rebuffed
  • 00:19:29
    she just said go back to your
  • 00:19:31
    microscopes
  • 00:19:32
    which bewildered me what the hell's he
  • 00:19:35
    all about
  • 00:19:36
    so we had a very stressful aspect which
  • 00:19:39
    did not help
  • 00:19:40
    joint work in our laboratory as a result
  • 00:19:45
    the stressful relationship between
  • 00:19:47
    wilkins and franklin
  • 00:19:49
    arose from a miscommunication that
  • 00:19:51
    originated with the director of the lab
  • 00:19:53
    jt
  • 00:19:53
    randall
  • 00:19:57
    well here we have copies
  • 00:20:00
    of rosin franklin's working notebooks
  • 00:20:04
    sir aaron klug nobel prize winner and
  • 00:20:07
    former president of the royal society
  • 00:20:09
    was franklin's last collaborator
  • 00:20:13
    after her death he studied her notebooks
  • 00:20:16
    and letters
  • 00:20:17
    including the one from randall and in
  • 00:20:20
    december 1950
  • 00:20:22
    he writes her a letter and i quote
  • 00:20:25
    this means that as far as the
  • 00:20:27
    experimental x-ray effort is concerned
  • 00:20:30
    there will be at the moment only
  • 00:20:32
    yourself and gosling
  • 00:20:34
    that letter was not seen by wilkins
  • 00:20:39
    and that fact and the fact that wilkins
  • 00:20:41
    was not present
  • 00:20:42
    when franklin arrived at king's college
  • 00:20:44
    in january 1951
  • 00:20:46
    led to a great deal of dissension later
  • 00:20:49
    on
  • 00:20:50
    she thought that she was an independent
  • 00:20:52
    researcher
  • 00:20:53
    and morris thought that she was his
  • 00:20:56
    assistant
  • 00:20:57
    right and that was a misunderstanding
  • 00:21:01
    the responsibility of that that we're
  • 00:21:03
    understanding
  • 00:21:04
    lies in randall's hands perhaps morris
  • 00:21:08
    wilkins could
  • 00:21:09
    live that kind of ambiguous situation
  • 00:21:12
    more easily in that rosalind was
  • 00:21:16
    didn't like those kind of unclear
  • 00:21:18
    situations
  • 00:21:20
    the situation was inflamed by a basic
  • 00:21:23
    personality clash
  • 00:21:25
    franklin articulate passionate and
  • 00:21:27
    always up for a good debate
  • 00:21:28
    and wilkins soft-spoken deliberate and
  • 00:21:31
    shy
  • 00:21:32
    just couldn't get along
  • 00:21:36
    he was a pretty tough person
  • 00:21:37
    single-minded spoke
  • 00:21:39
    spoke what she believed and
  • 00:21:43
    could in fact be quite fierce
  • 00:21:46
    and if she being a man would have begun
  • 00:21:48
    totally unremarked
  • 00:21:51
    yet another barrier was social class and
  • 00:21:54
    a private life
  • 00:21:55
    entirely separate from the lab
  • 00:21:58
    she had a very uh full social life i
  • 00:22:02
    mean i know
  • 00:22:02
    for a fact that one stage i think she
  • 00:22:04
    was going out with the first violin
  • 00:22:06
    of the london philharmonic now um
  • 00:22:09
    that is a cut above the beer drinking
  • 00:22:12
    chaps like us
  • 00:22:13
    who were sitting in fridges and so to
  • 00:22:16
    that extent she had her own flat
  • 00:22:18
    she wasn't living in digs she didn't
  • 00:22:21
    suffer fools gladly
  • 00:22:23
    she was very intelligent and she
  • 00:22:25
    desperately wanted to get on with this
  • 00:22:27
    work
  • 00:22:28
    she was so convinced that it was there
  • 00:22:31
    like a right plum to be plucked from the
  • 00:22:34
    tree
  • 00:22:36
    despite all the tensions of the lab
  • 00:22:38
    franklin applied herself to the task
  • 00:22:40
    with single-minded determination
  • 00:22:43
    setting her sights on solving the
  • 00:22:44
    structure of dna
  • 00:22:49
    but now a new player was about to enter
  • 00:22:53
    the game
  • 00:22:56
    well rosalind was setting up her new lab
  • 00:22:59
    at king's college london
  • 00:23:01
    james watson much younger 23 but with a
  • 00:23:04
    phd had come to europe because he wanted
  • 00:23:06
    to study the gene and he was convinced
  • 00:23:08
    that the gene was the thing to study
  • 00:23:10
    this is going to be the secret of life
  • 00:23:13
    watson goes to a conference in naples
  • 00:23:16
    where wilkins shows one of his early
  • 00:23:18
    fuzzy diffraction images of dna
  • 00:23:21
    watson tries to meet wilkins and wrangle
  • 00:23:23
    an invitation to work at king's college
  • 00:23:26
    [Music]
  • 00:23:27
    i tried to talk to him but morris i feel
  • 00:23:30
    you know his english and doesn't talk
  • 00:23:31
    much to strangers
  • 00:23:33
    and so i left and sort of
  • 00:23:36
    vague feeling that it'd be nice if i
  • 00:23:38
    could work with morris but it wasn't
  • 00:23:41
    it wasn't a sort of obvious coming
  • 00:23:44
    together of like mines
  • 00:23:47
    wilkins does not take the bait
  • 00:23:50
    but shortly after watson is invited to
  • 00:23:53
    the cavendish
  • 00:23:54
    a famous research lab at cambridge
  • 00:23:56
    university
  • 00:23:57
    headed by nobel laureate sir lawrence
  • 00:24:02
    bragg
  • 00:24:05
    there watson is assigned an office with
  • 00:24:06
    another physicist turned
  • 00:24:08
    crystallographer
  • 00:24:09
    francis crick an old friend of wilkins
  • 00:24:14
    crick and watson immediately click
  • 00:24:19
    but an hour away at king's college the
  • 00:24:22
    negative atmosphere takes a new turn for
  • 00:24:24
    the worse
  • 00:24:26
    roslyn franklin is given the sarcastic
  • 00:24:28
    nickname
  • 00:24:29
    that watson will later popularize in the
  • 00:24:32
    double helix
  • 00:24:34
    rosie oh yes you know
  • 00:24:37
    it was um with her walking around the
  • 00:24:41
    lab sort of swinging up there you know
  • 00:24:43
    looking a bit like that on occasions you
  • 00:24:45
    know she provoked this sort of thing
  • 00:24:47
    who would call a rosie for a joke should
  • 00:24:50
    he joke
  • 00:24:52
    a lot of people referred to her as rosie
  • 00:24:54
    behind her back but nobody caught her
  • 00:24:56
    rosie to her face despite the hostile
  • 00:25:01
    environment
  • 00:25:01
    within months of her arrival at king's
  • 00:25:04
    franklin is producing
  • 00:25:05
    amazing results rosalind
  • 00:25:09
    did the most professional work she had a
  • 00:25:13
    good camera because she developed a good
  • 00:25:15
    camera
  • 00:25:15
    she got superb pictures
  • 00:25:19
    the best in those days
  • 00:25:23
    within a few months franklin transformed
  • 00:25:27
    the state of research at kings
  • 00:25:30
    but above all she discovered that there
  • 00:25:33
    were two forms of dna
  • 00:25:36
    franklin's discovery that there are two
  • 00:25:38
    forms of dna
  • 00:25:40
    is perhaps the most crucial step toward
  • 00:25:42
    the ultimate discovery of its structure
  • 00:25:46
    before rosalind franklin discovered that
  • 00:25:49
    there were two distinct forms of dna the
  • 00:25:51
    a and the b
  • 00:25:52
    forms people were probably looking at
  • 00:25:54
    mixtures of those two forms
  • 00:25:56
    it would be sort of like if you had a
  • 00:25:57
    picture of mickey mouse superimposed on
  • 00:26:00
    a picture of donald duck
  • 00:26:01
    be almost impossible to understand what
  • 00:26:03
    either mickey mouse or donald duck
  • 00:26:05
    looked like
  • 00:26:08
    the a is a drier more crystalline form
  • 00:26:10
    of dna
  • 00:26:11
    and produces more detailed images
  • 00:26:16
    the b is wetter and how dna occurs in
  • 00:26:19
    living cells
  • 00:26:21
    it produces a simpler image but reveals
  • 00:26:24
    a key clue to solving the structure of
  • 00:26:26
    dna
  • 00:26:29
    the x shape in the middle is the
  • 00:26:31
    diffraction signature
  • 00:26:33
    of a helix
  • 00:26:36
    the significance is not lost on franklin
  • 00:26:39
    she notes it in scientific shorthand and
  • 00:26:42
    according to klug
  • 00:26:44
    presents her discovery
  • 00:26:45
    [Music]
  • 00:26:49
    in november 1951 franklin gave a
  • 00:26:53
    colloquium about her work and described
  • 00:26:55
    the a and the b
  • 00:26:56
    forms she concentrated mostly on the a
  • 00:26:59
    form and the a form she says is likely
  • 00:27:03
    to be helical
  • 00:27:05
    like the b the b there was
  • 00:27:06
    unquestionably in her view was illegal
  • 00:27:08
    throughout
  • 00:27:09
    it was quite clear but she was
  • 00:27:11
    concentrating upon the a
  • 00:27:12
    form because of the greater wealth of
  • 00:27:14
    information you could get from it
  • 00:27:16
    that was her analytical approach
  • 00:27:20
    in the audience that day is james watson
  • 00:27:23
    sent by crick to gather intelligence on
  • 00:27:26
    franklin's labors
  • 00:27:28
    crick and watson are planning to use a
  • 00:27:30
    different approach to solving the
  • 00:27:32
    structure of dna
  • 00:27:34
    model building
  • 00:27:35
    [Music]
  • 00:27:38
    within a week watson and crick invite
  • 00:27:40
    the scientists from king's college
  • 00:27:42
    to see their model
  • 00:27:46
    so rosalind just um was terribly amused
  • 00:27:51
    um she never took prisoners anyway so
  • 00:27:55
    she was pretty
  • 00:27:58
    sharp in her criticism of the model and
  • 00:28:02
    explained in detail why it couldn't be
  • 00:28:05
    correct one two three and
  • 00:28:08
    and then we left the model of dna touted
  • 00:28:12
    by watson and crick
  • 00:28:14
    is an embarrassing failure well
  • 00:28:17
    watson himself said very frankly he
  • 00:28:19
    didn't really know enough
  • 00:28:20
    crystallography to understand the
  • 00:28:22
    meaning of their data he missed that
  • 00:28:24
    entirely and he found himself really
  • 00:28:25
    just preoccupied with her looks
  • 00:28:27
    why was she so plain why didn't she wear
  • 00:28:29
    lipstick
  • 00:28:31
    she might have been pretty if she'd
  • 00:28:33
    taken off her glasses and done something
  • 00:28:35
    interesting with her hair
  • 00:28:37
    lauren sprague the head of the cavendish
  • 00:28:40
    lab
  • 00:28:40
    is humiliated and forbids watson and
  • 00:28:43
    crick to continue their model making
  • 00:28:47
    it was a happy moment for rosalind me
  • 00:28:49
    because it justified
  • 00:28:51
    her interpretation that you could build
  • 00:28:53
    models but you couldn't prove which was
  • 00:28:55
    the right one and here
  • 00:28:56
    they were the model builders hard at it
  • 00:28:58
    and they'd
  • 00:28:59
    produce completely the wrong model
  • 00:29:02
    to franklin the incident is an
  • 00:29:04
    affirmation of her training
  • 00:29:06
    that experimentation and patient
  • 00:29:08
    analysis of the data
  • 00:29:10
    will reveal the answer
  • 00:29:13
    but what franklin may not know is that
  • 00:29:16
    her unpublished findings
  • 00:29:18
    will continue to make their way to
  • 00:29:20
    watson and crick
  • 00:29:22
    and they are getting there through the
  • 00:29:24
    deputy director
  • 00:29:25
    of her own lab morris wilkins
  • 00:29:28
    gradually wilkins felt shut out of his
  • 00:29:31
    own subject
  • 00:29:32
    so he began going up to cambridge to
  • 00:29:34
    talk to his old friend and he was an old
  • 00:29:36
    friend
  • 00:29:37
    francis crick about dna which he was
  • 00:29:40
    still interested in and about this
  • 00:29:41
    terrible rosie who was
  • 00:29:43
    hoarding he felt uh her data so
  • 00:29:47
    inadvertently wilkins was the conduit a
  • 00:29:50
    lot of information from roslyn and from
  • 00:29:52
    kings
  • 00:29:53
    actually passed its way to cambridge so
  • 00:29:55
    that even if watson
  • 00:29:57
    and crick were not officially working on
  • 00:29:59
    dna they were speculating
  • 00:30:02
    but while crick and watson speculate
  • 00:30:05
    franklin continues to analyze and
  • 00:30:07
    collect
  • 00:30:08
    new information in may 1952
  • 00:30:12
    she sets up the x-ray diffractometer to
  • 00:30:15
    take an image of the wetter form of dna
  • 00:30:18
    the bee today x-ray diffraction
  • 00:30:22
    technology vastly improved is still used
  • 00:30:25
    to explore molecular structure
  • 00:30:28
    at the end of this glass capillary is a
  • 00:30:30
    dna
  • 00:30:31
    fiber similar to the kind that rosin
  • 00:30:34
    franklin worked with
  • 00:30:35
    and it is so small that it's difficult
  • 00:30:37
    to see it with their naked eye
  • 00:30:41
    rosin frankly had to bundle together 20
  • 00:30:43
    of these fibers
  • 00:30:44
    in order to get x-ray diffraction images
  • 00:30:48
    now scientists use dna crystals
  • 00:30:51
    which give better results than these
  • 00:30:53
    microscopic fibers
  • 00:30:55
    20 of them bundled together are about
  • 00:30:57
    the thickness of a
  • 00:30:59
    human hair and with x-ray beams at least
  • 00:31:02
    300 times
  • 00:31:04
    stronger today than in franklin's time
  • 00:31:07
    it can take only seconds to expose an
  • 00:31:09
    image that took franklin
  • 00:31:11
    100 hours now
  • 00:31:14
    a computer interprets the image and
  • 00:31:17
    swiftly calculates
  • 00:31:18
    a 3d model but in franklin's time
  • 00:31:21
    analyzing diffraction patterns could
  • 00:31:24
    require
  • 00:31:24
    thousands of calculations done by hand
  • 00:31:27
    and interpreting a single image could
  • 00:31:30
    take more than a year
  • 00:31:32
    so for roslyn franklin to go through the
  • 00:31:35
    calculation
  • 00:31:36
    she had to have perseverance and
  • 00:31:38
    motivation and a real drive
  • 00:31:40
    and to do all of the calculations
  • 00:31:44
    that was necessary by hand
  • 00:31:48
    in may 1952 franklin's perseverance and
  • 00:31:52
    exacting techniques pay off
  • 00:31:54
    producing the sharpest image yet of the
  • 00:31:57
    b form of dna
  • 00:31:59
    [Music]
  • 00:32:01
    she labels it photo 51
  • 00:32:05
    and puts it aside while she continues
  • 00:32:07
    her work on the a form
  • 00:32:10
    [Music]
  • 00:32:12
    but around this time franklin will
  • 00:32:14
    acquire another nickname
  • 00:32:16
    the dark lady she is so
  • 00:32:19
    unhappy at king's she arranges to leave
  • 00:32:23
    she agrees to finish analyzing her data
  • 00:32:26
    write up her findings
  • 00:32:27
    and stay until the end of the year i was
  • 00:32:30
    very sorry
  • 00:32:31
    that she should find it necessary to
  • 00:32:35
    to to leave but of course appreciated
  • 00:32:37
    that there was no alternative that
  • 00:32:39
    the the crown prince
  • 00:32:43
    and the dark lady were never going to
  • 00:32:44
    get on together
  • 00:32:46
    he wasn't going to leave so it was
  • 00:32:47
    obvious that rosalind was going to leave
  • 00:32:52
    in the midst of this transition someone
  • 00:32:54
    gives photo 51
  • 00:32:56
    to wilkins
  • 00:33:01
    [Music]
  • 00:33:03
    i cannot remember how he came by this
  • 00:33:06
    beautiful picture it may have been given
  • 00:33:09
    to him by rotten or it may be me
  • 00:33:14
    meanwhile at the cavendish a new
  • 00:33:17
    researcher moves into the lab with
  • 00:33:18
    watson and crick
  • 00:33:21
    peter pauling the son of the renowned
  • 00:33:24
    guru of chemistry from caltech
  • 00:33:26
    linus pauling only a year ago
  • 00:33:30
    pauling had pioneered the same model
  • 00:33:32
    building technique adopted by watson and
  • 00:33:34
    crick
  • 00:33:35
    with little experimental data polling
  • 00:33:38
    had come up with a structure for long
  • 00:33:40
    stretches of proteins
  • 00:33:42
    a single stranded helix
  • 00:33:45
    now pauling sends his son a paper in
  • 00:33:48
    which he proposes
  • 00:33:49
    a structure for dna of course
  • 00:33:53
    we're upset and the question was could
  • 00:33:56
    it be right
  • 00:33:57
    and we knew that linus didn't have a
  • 00:33:59
    good x-ray program so
  • 00:34:01
    could he have thought it through without
  • 00:34:02
    any of the king's data
  • 00:34:05
    the answer was no pauling makes some of
  • 00:34:08
    the same mistakes
  • 00:34:09
    that watson and crick had made on their
  • 00:34:11
    first model
  • 00:34:13
    a three-stranded helix with the bases on
  • 00:34:15
    the outside
  • 00:34:17
    but pauling's mistake will be discovered
  • 00:34:19
    as soon as he publishes
  • 00:34:21
    watson knows that if pauling gets access
  • 00:34:24
    to roslyn franklin's data
  • 00:34:26
    he could quickly come up with a correct
  • 00:34:29
    model
  • 00:34:30
    now the race begins in earnest watson
  • 00:34:33
    estimates
  • 00:34:34
    he and crick have six weeks to solve the
  • 00:34:36
    problem
  • 00:34:41
    around the time franklin gives her last
  • 00:34:43
    presentation at king's college
  • 00:34:46
    jim watson shows up in her office
  • 00:34:51
    he tries to show her pauling's paper
  • 00:34:54
    perhaps to convince her that
  • 00:34:56
    pauling will beat them to solve the
  • 00:34:57
    structure of dna
  • 00:34:59
    if she doesn't pool her data with him
  • 00:35:01
    and crick
  • 00:35:02
    and according to watson's account he
  • 00:35:05
    implies that she is
  • 00:35:06
    incompetent in interpreting x-ray
  • 00:35:08
    pictures
  • 00:35:11
    and as he tells us in the double helix
  • 00:35:13
    she began to advance
  • 00:35:15
    toward me and he said fearing that in
  • 00:35:18
    her hot anger she might strike me
  • 00:35:20
    i retreated which is actually absurd she
  • 00:35:23
    was almost half his size
  • 00:35:26
    watson then reports that he runs into
  • 00:35:29
    morris wilkins
  • 00:35:30
    wilkins shows watson photo 51
  • 00:35:35
    and when he saw this suddenly well i was
  • 00:35:37
    surprised when i said whoa
  • 00:35:38
    like this you see thought oh well this
  • 00:35:41
    is must be done the last couple of days
  • 00:35:43
    or something but
  • 00:35:44
    and occurred to me they've been lying
  • 00:35:46
    there for several months
  • 00:35:49
    my mouth fell open and my pulse began to
  • 00:35:52
    race
  • 00:35:52
    watson says in the double helix
  • 00:35:56
    it is the clear x pattern the signature
  • 00:36:00
    of a helix
  • 00:36:01
    that ignites his excitement but there's
  • 00:36:04
    more
  • 00:36:07
    from this photo alone you can deduce
  • 00:36:12
    the number of units that per turn the
  • 00:36:16
    political turn
  • 00:36:17
    that were in the helix
  • 00:36:20
    the number of lines in the photo shows
  • 00:36:23
    that each twist of the helix
  • 00:36:25
    has 10 units or molecular building
  • 00:36:28
    blocks
  • 00:36:29
    and the dimensions of the image
  • 00:36:31
    correspond to a helix of 34 angstroms
  • 00:36:34
    per turn wilkins gives this crucial
  • 00:36:39
    information
  • 00:36:40
    to watson so they get the basic
  • 00:36:43
    parameters
  • 00:36:44
    for building the helical backbones on
  • 00:36:47
    the train back to cambridge
  • 00:36:49
    watson sketches photo 51 on his
  • 00:36:52
    newspaper
  • 00:36:53
    and reports to crick based on franklin's
  • 00:36:57
    data
  • 00:36:57
    crick and watson go to lawrence bragg
  • 00:37:00
    the head of the cavendish lab
  • 00:37:01
    and he gives them permission once again
  • 00:37:04
    to build a model
  • 00:37:06
    they begin on february 4th 1953.
  • 00:37:11
    then they had another idea they knew
  • 00:37:14
    that
  • 00:37:14
    data from all of king's biophysics unit
  • 00:37:17
    including
  • 00:37:18
    roslyn's work was published in a report
  • 00:37:21
    for the medical research council
  • 00:37:24
    in the mrc report franklin places dna
  • 00:37:28
    in a class of molecules with a certain
  • 00:37:30
    type of symmetry
  • 00:37:31
    as these simple drawings in her notebook
  • 00:37:34
    illustrate
  • 00:37:35
    the implications of that symmetry would
  • 00:37:38
    be obvious to an expert
  • 00:37:39
    like francis crick the mrc report
  • 00:37:43
    contains franklin's data the symmetry of
  • 00:37:46
    the a form
  • 00:37:47
    or the crystal parameters but above all
  • 00:37:50
    the symmetry
  • 00:37:51
    it was this symmetry which told crick
  • 00:37:54
    there were two chains
  • 00:37:55
    running in opposite direction
  • 00:37:58
    two strands each with the sugars and
  • 00:38:01
    phosphates running in different
  • 00:38:02
    directions an
  • 00:38:04
    anti-parallel double helix
  • 00:38:08
    but where do the bases go on the outside
  • 00:38:11
    as watson and crick depicted in their
  • 00:38:13
    first model
  • 00:38:14
    or the inside as franklin had told them
  • 00:38:18
    there were two important clues a few
  • 00:38:20
    years earlier
  • 00:38:21
    a british scientist william asbury
  • 00:38:24
    theorized that the four bases
  • 00:38:26
    adenine thymine guanine and cytosine
  • 00:38:30
    would be stacked like pennies and at
  • 00:38:32
    columbia university
  • 00:38:34
    erwin chargaff discovered that dna
  • 00:38:36
    always contains
  • 00:38:38
    equal amounts of adenine and thymine as
  • 00:38:40
    well as equal amounts of guanine
  • 00:38:43
    and cytosine at first watson thought
  • 00:38:46
    that the bases must be paired like
  • 00:38:48
    with like a with a g with g
  • 00:38:51
    and so on but an office mate jerry
  • 00:38:54
    donahue
  • 00:38:55
    shows him that he's using the wrong
  • 00:38:57
    chemical forms
  • 00:38:59
    with the right forms watson then makes a
  • 00:39:02
    giant leap
  • 00:39:04
    he finds he can fit the bases into the
  • 00:39:06
    helix measured by franklin
  • 00:39:09
    if he pairs a with t and g with c
  • 00:39:13
    arranged this way the bases form the
  • 00:39:15
    connecting rungs in a twisting ladder
  • 00:39:18
    on the inside of a double helix
  • 00:39:22
    it is roslyn franklin's experimental
  • 00:39:25
    framework
  • 00:39:26
    a collection of evidence painstakingly
  • 00:39:29
    accumulated over two years
  • 00:39:32
    that guides watson and crick to solve
  • 00:39:34
    the structure
  • 00:39:35
    of dna and in another
  • 00:39:38
    eureka moment the structure rewards them
  • 00:39:42
    with the immediate realization of how
  • 00:39:44
    dna replicates
  • 00:39:47
    unzipping the helix produces two
  • 00:39:50
    templates to create
  • 00:39:51
    two new helices each identical to the
  • 00:39:55
    original
  • 00:39:57
    dna isn't just a molecule it's the
  • 00:40:00
    blueprint
  • 00:40:01
    for life
  • 00:40:04
    in one of the most famous
  • 00:40:06
    understatements in science
  • 00:40:08
    watson and crick write it has not
  • 00:40:11
    escaped our notice
  • 00:40:12
    that the specific pairing we have
  • 00:40:14
    postulated
  • 00:40:15
    immediately suggests a possible copying
  • 00:40:18
    mechanism
  • 00:40:19
    for the genetic material
  • 00:40:22
    the day was saturday february 28
  • 00:40:27
    1953.
  • 00:40:30
    that was the day that they went into the
  • 00:40:32
    pub the eagle
  • 00:40:33
    and crick told everybody we've
  • 00:40:35
    discovered the secret of life
  • 00:40:39
    now that they have discovered the secret
  • 00:40:41
    of life they have another problem to
  • 00:40:43
    solve
  • 00:40:44
    how are they going to prove it
  • 00:40:48
    once again they need franklin
  • 00:40:52
    she travels to cambridge to review the
  • 00:40:54
    model
  • 00:40:56
    and watson writes in his book that her
  • 00:41:00
    immediate acceptance of the model amazed
  • 00:41:02
    me
  • 00:41:03
    but she understood immediately that the
  • 00:41:05
    model was correct
  • 00:41:09
    what she perhaps didn't know is how much
  • 00:41:11
    of her data they had
  • 00:41:13
    known in order to build that model
  • 00:41:23
    roslyn's part in the great discovery was
  • 00:41:25
    obscured by a series of maneuvers made
  • 00:41:28
    behind her back
  • 00:41:29
    the thing is that watson and crick
  • 00:41:31
    wanted to publish quickly to get ahead
  • 00:41:33
    of linus pauling
  • 00:41:34
    in california but they were held back by
  • 00:41:35
    the embarrassing fact that all the
  • 00:41:37
    experimental work that had led to their
  • 00:41:39
    great leaps of the imagination had been
  • 00:41:41
    done at a rival institution at king's
  • 00:41:43
    and rosalind's data hadn't been
  • 00:41:45
    published
  • 00:41:46
    according to brenda maddox bragg of the
  • 00:41:49
    cavendish
  • 00:41:50
    and randall of kings approached the
  • 00:41:52
    editors of nature to engineer a solution
  • 00:41:56
    they agreed to publish three articles
  • 00:41:58
    within a single issue
  • 00:42:00
    watson and crick's article first wilkins
  • 00:42:04
    and his collaborator next
  • 00:42:06
    and last is franklin and gosling's
  • 00:42:08
    article
  • 00:42:10
    its position at the end suggests
  • 00:42:12
    franklin's findings merely
  • 00:42:14
    confirm watson and crick's model instead
  • 00:42:18
    of providing the essential data
  • 00:42:20
    used to formulate it second watson paper
  • 00:42:24
    doesn't say in what particular respects
  • 00:42:28
    they were indebted to franklin for her
  • 00:42:30
    work
  • 00:42:31
    sir john maddox later editor of nature
  • 00:42:34
    for two decades
  • 00:42:35
    shows how franklin's contribution was
  • 00:42:38
    obscured by watson and crick
  • 00:42:40
    with a single guarded sentence they say
  • 00:42:43
    we have been stimulated by
  • 00:42:44
    a general knowledge of her work but in
  • 00:42:48
    fact they had particular knowledge of
  • 00:42:49
    her work
  • 00:42:51
    and i as an editor would have smelled a
  • 00:42:54
    rat at that
  • 00:42:56
    franklin had written her own article a
  • 00:42:58
    month before she saw the model
  • 00:43:01
    inserted by hand into the original text
  • 00:43:03
    is the sentence
  • 00:43:05
    thus our general ideas are consistent
  • 00:43:08
    with the model proposed by crick and
  • 00:43:09
    watson
  • 00:43:11
    indeed her ideas were consistent with
  • 00:43:14
    their model
  • 00:43:15
    because they largely based their model
  • 00:43:18
    on her
  • 00:43:18
    ideas what did watson and crick have
  • 00:43:22
    without
  • 00:43:22
    rosalind franklin's data and the answer
  • 00:43:24
    is almost nothing
  • 00:43:26
    they were poised to figure it out their
  • 00:43:28
    work was brilliant but they couldn't do
  • 00:43:30
    it without rosalind franklin's data
  • 00:43:32
    in fact rosalind franklin could be said
  • 00:43:36
    to be watson and crick's unknowing and
  • 00:43:39
    unrecognized collaborator
  • 00:43:45
    [Music]
  • 00:43:48
    by the time the articles appeared in
  • 00:43:50
    nature on april 25th
  • 00:43:52
    1953 franklin had taken her new position
  • 00:43:56
    at birkbeck college in london
  • 00:43:59
    in her fifth floor office under a leaky
  • 00:44:01
    skylight
  • 00:44:02
    she often left an umbrella open on her
  • 00:44:05
    desk to protect her papers
  • 00:44:09
    she headed the virus research lab from
  • 00:44:11
    1953
  • 00:44:12
    to 1958 and thrived in birkbeck's
  • 00:44:16
    collegial atmosphere
  • 00:44:17
    much like her beloved laboratoire in
  • 00:44:20
    paris
  • 00:44:22
    here she made what she called her
  • 00:44:24
    greatest discovery
  • 00:44:26
    working out the complex structure of a
  • 00:44:28
    virus and locating its infectious
  • 00:44:31
    element
  • 00:44:32
    she collaborated with aaron klug who
  • 00:44:34
    later wins a nobel prize
  • 00:44:38
    she worked out the exact geometry so it
  • 00:44:41
    was important
  • 00:44:42
    in the uh in his in history that you
  • 00:44:45
    could actually do such things
  • 00:44:47
    the thing about rosalind she was
  • 00:44:49
    single-minded and she could tackle these
  • 00:44:51
    large and difficult problems
  • 00:44:54
    franklin's virus work secured her
  • 00:44:56
    international reputation
  • 00:44:58
    and brought many invitations to speak in
  • 00:45:00
    the united states
  • 00:45:02
    in 1956 she celebrated her 36th birthday
  • 00:45:06
    while visiting universities in
  • 00:45:08
    california and climbed mount whitney
  • 00:45:10
    one of the highest peaks in north
  • 00:45:12
    america
  • 00:45:14
    but near the end of her trip franklin
  • 00:45:16
    was suffering from severe abdominal
  • 00:45:18
    pains
  • 00:45:21
    on her return to england she was
  • 00:45:23
    diagnosed with cancer
  • 00:45:26
    there is speculation that her work with
  • 00:45:28
    x-rays
  • 00:45:29
    may have triggered the disease
  • 00:45:33
    she handled it marvelously yeah
  • 00:45:36
    she was in the marston the cancer
  • 00:45:38
    hospital
  • 00:45:39
    and there she was in a private well a
  • 00:45:42
    single room at the end of a
  • 00:45:43
    corridor with work papers and
  • 00:45:46
    calculations all around
  • 00:45:49
    she was still optimistic and confident
  • 00:45:52
    that
  • 00:45:53
    things were going to get better
  • 00:45:56
    don casper an american colleague recalls
  • 00:45:59
    her struggle to climb from the basement
  • 00:46:01
    lab
  • 00:46:02
    to her fifth floor office upstairs
  • 00:46:06
    up until the end she was still working
  • 00:46:09
    away
  • 00:46:10
    we had wished we could help her but
  • 00:46:14
    you know unfortunately that there was
  • 00:46:17
    there was nothing could be done after a
  • 00:46:20
    year and a half of
  • 00:46:21
    terrible illness painful treatment she
  • 00:46:24
    asked a doctor for a frank prognosis
  • 00:46:26
    and he told her to seek the
  • 00:46:27
    constellations of religion she was
  • 00:46:29
    furious she was not religious
  • 00:46:31
    she had a full agenda she had an
  • 00:46:33
    invitation to a fellowship in caracas
  • 00:46:35
    she was too busy to die
  • 00:46:40
    brotherly and i were going to attend a
  • 00:46:42
    meeting in leeds
  • 00:46:44
    and she suggested that we could drive
  • 00:46:47
    and go and visit some of the norman
  • 00:46:50
    cathedrals when i arrived
  • 00:46:54
    in london i called her because i
  • 00:46:57
    expected to stay with her
  • 00:46:59
    and there was no answer and after
  • 00:47:03
    several attempts to get her on the phone
  • 00:47:06
    i called
  • 00:47:07
    an uncle whom i knew just well and he
  • 00:47:09
    told me that she was in hospital
  • 00:47:12
    so until the very last day she hoped
  • 00:47:15
    that she could go to the countryside
  • 00:47:16
    with a friend
  • 00:47:17
    right and she died while we were at at
  • 00:47:20
    least
  • 00:47:21
    at the meeting
  • 00:47:25
    [Music]
  • 00:47:28
    her epitaph reads scientist
  • 00:47:31
    her research and discoveries on viruses
  • 00:47:34
    remain of lasting benefit to mankind
  • 00:47:39
    she died april 16 1958
  • 00:47:42
    that same day the london times carried
  • 00:47:44
    an article acclaiming
  • 00:47:46
    her virus model which was unveiled at
  • 00:47:48
    the brussels world fair
  • 00:47:52
    her obituary in the new york times
  • 00:47:54
    called her
  • 00:47:55
    one of a select band of pioneers
  • 00:47:58
    unraveling virus diseases
  • 00:48:00
    and genetics
  • 00:48:04
    she went to the grave never knowing how
  • 00:48:06
    much watson and crick had relied on her
  • 00:48:09
    work
  • 00:48:10
    to make their great discovery or if she
  • 00:48:13
    knew
  • 00:48:14
    she didn't care
  • 00:48:27
    in 1962 james watson
  • 00:48:30
    francis crick and morris wilkins won the
  • 00:48:33
    nobel prize
  • 00:48:34
    for their discovery of the structure of
  • 00:48:35
    dna
  • 00:48:37
    franklin's name receives no mention save
  • 00:48:40
    a passing reference by wilkins
  • 00:48:42
    her crucial contribution to their work
  • 00:48:45
    becomes a footnote
  • 00:48:46
    in scientific history
  • 00:48:50
    rosalind probably would have been
  • 00:48:53
    forgotten not by her friends
  • 00:48:56
    we would not have forgotten rosalind
  • 00:49:00
    but i mean by the public in general
  • 00:49:04
    if we talk about rosalind it is because
  • 00:49:08
    of the way jim watson offended her
  • 00:49:11
    memory
  • 00:49:14
    in 1968 james watson published the
  • 00:49:17
    double helix
  • 00:49:18
    his personal account of the discovery of
  • 00:49:20
    the structure of dna
  • 00:49:23
    in his book watson casts franklin as
  • 00:49:26
    uncooperative
  • 00:49:27
    unattractive and incompetent in
  • 00:49:30
    interpreting x-ray pictures
  • 00:49:33
    and yet watson admits he needs her
  • 00:49:36
    findings
  • 00:49:37
    he even boasts of using her work without
  • 00:49:39
    her knowledge or permission
  • 00:49:41
    saying rosie of course did not directly
  • 00:49:44
    give us her data
  • 00:49:45
    for that matter no one at king's
  • 00:49:48
    realized
  • 00:49:48
    they were in our hands
  • 00:49:50
    [Music]
  • 00:49:54
    when the book was in rough draft harvard
  • 00:49:57
    university press
  • 00:49:58
    asked those mentioned in the manuscript
  • 00:50:00
    to read it many
  • 00:50:01
    including crick and wilkins objected so
  • 00:50:04
    strongly
  • 00:50:05
    that in a highly unprecedented move
  • 00:50:08
    harvard withdrew its offer to publish
  • 00:50:10
    the book came out with a popular press
  • 00:50:13
    and became an instant best seller
  • 00:50:16
    but most of the main portraits were
  • 00:50:18
    modified
  • 00:50:19
    all except rosalind who was dead and
  • 00:50:21
    every writer knows you can't label the
  • 00:50:23
    dead
  • 00:50:25
    franklin's family and colleagues
  • 00:50:27
    protested watson's portrayal of
  • 00:50:29
    as one put it that gifted girl who could
  • 00:50:32
    not defend herself
  • 00:50:35
    so watson obliged and he wrote a pious
  • 00:50:38
    epilogue
  • 00:50:38
    saying as a young man he had not
  • 00:50:40
    appreciated
  • 00:50:42
    the difficulties that women had in being
  • 00:50:45
    accepted and making their way in science
  • 00:50:47
    and the epilogue is there but it does
  • 00:50:49
    nothing
  • 00:50:50
    to alter soften the character of this of
  • 00:50:53
    this
  • 00:50:54
    terrible rosie
  • 00:50:56
    [Music]
  • 00:50:57
    watson declined nova's request for an
  • 00:51:06
    interview
  • 00:51:08
    franklin is now receiving some long
  • 00:51:10
    overdue recognition
  • 00:51:12
    plaques where she lived and worked and
  • 00:51:15
    recently
  • 00:51:16
    britain's royal society created the
  • 00:51:18
    rosalind franklin award
  • 00:51:20
    to support women in science
  • 00:51:23
    when sir aaron klug won his nobel prize
  • 00:51:26
    in part for the work he started with
  • 00:51:28
    franklin
  • 00:51:29
    he unlike the dna trio honored her
  • 00:51:32
    contribution
  • 00:51:34
    as i said in my nobel lecture she made
  • 00:51:38
    an impression on me where she
  • 00:51:42
    pointed the way to tackling important
  • 00:51:45
    and difficult problems no matter how
  • 00:51:47
    long they took
  • 00:51:50
    rosalind died at 37 with no sense of
  • 00:51:54
    having been edged out in a race
  • 00:51:56
    that only watson and crick knew was a
  • 00:51:58
    race she died proud of her world
  • 00:52:00
    reputation in coal and virus research
  • 00:52:03
    she was cheated of the only thing she
  • 00:52:05
    really wanted which was a chance to
  • 00:52:07
    finish her work
  • 00:52:08
    in my view her lost prize was life
  • 00:52:14
    those who admire franklin take solace in
  • 00:52:17
    her
  • 00:52:17
    uncompromising dedication
  • 00:52:21
    for roslyn franklin the joy of science
  • 00:52:24
    was in the work itself and its ultimate
  • 00:52:27
    reward
  • 00:52:28
    the betterment of humankind
  • 00:52:33
    [Music]
  • 00:52:46
    on nova's website find out why roslyn
  • 00:52:49
    franklin's photo 51
  • 00:52:51
    holds so many clues to the structure of
  • 00:52:53
    dna
  • 00:52:54
    at pbs.org for america online keyword
  • 00:52:58
    pbs
  • 00:53:03
    [Applause]
  • 00:53:13
    [Music]
  • 00:53:15
    the secret of photo 51 video and the
  • 00:53:18
    book roslyn franklin
  • 00:53:19
    the dark lady of dna are available from
  • 00:53:22
    wgbh
  • 00:53:23
    boston video to place an order please
  • 00:53:25
    call 1-800-255
  • 00:53:29
    [Music]
  • 00:53:41
    nova is a production of wgbh boston
Tags
  • DNA
  • X-ray diffraction
  • Rosalind Franklin
  • Watson and Crick
  • Photo 51
  • scientific discovery
  • gender bias
  • Nobel Prize
  • molecular biology
  • historical injustice