So, from the age of 12, when Rosalind decided to become a scientist, she definitely wasn’t in for an easy ride. They were quite often seen as an embarrassment. Teachers described her as “alarmingly clever”, which reflected the opinion society had of gifted females at that time. She attended St Paul’s Girls School, one of the few schools in London that taught science to girls. Her great uncle became the first practising Jew to sit on the British cabinet. Rosalind was born in 1920 in London to a Jewish family of rising influence. Only when The Double Helix by James Watson was published in 1968 was Rosalind acknowledged outside her immediate circle of peers. In Brenda Maddox’s book Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA she describes Rosalind as “the woman whose gifts were sacrificed to the greater glory of the male”. During her lifetime, she received very little recognition for her contributions to one of the most significant discoveries of the 20th century. The story of Rosalind Franklin’s life and work remains one of controversy.
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