Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA: The powerful historical biography of a pioneering woman in science
Product ID: 51638243
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The untold story of the woman who helped to make one of humanity’s greatest discoveries – DNA – but who was never given credit for doing so. ‘Our dark lady is leaving us next week.’ On 7 March 1953 Maurice Wilkins of King’s College, London, wrote to Francis Crick at the Cavendish laboratories in Cambridge to say that as soon as his obstructive female colleague was gone from King's, he, Crick, and James Watson, a young American working with Crick, could go full speed ahead with solving the structure of the DNA molecule that lies in every gene. Not long after, the pair whose names will be forever linked announced to the world that they had discovered the secret of life. But could Crick and Watson have done it without the ‘dark lady’? In two years at King’s, Franklin had made major contributions to the understanding of DNA. She established its existence in two forms, she worked out the position of the phosphorous atoms in its backbone. Most crucially, using X-ray techniques that may have contributed significantly to her later death from cancer at the tragically young age of thirty-seven, she had taken beautiful photographs of the patterns of DNA. This is the extraordinarily powerful story of Rosalind Franklin, told by one of our greatest biographers; the single-minded young scientist whose contribution to arguably the most significant discovery of all time went unrecognised, elbowed aside in the rush for glory, and who died too young to recover her claim to some of that reputation, a woman who was not the wife of anybody and who is a myth in the making. Like a medieval saint, Franklin looms larger as she recedes in time. She has become a feminist icon, the Sylvia Plath of molecular biology. This will be a full and balanced biography, that will examine Franklin’s abruptness and tempestuousness, her loneliness and her relationships, the powerful family from which she sprang and the uniqueness of the work in which she was engaged. It is a vivid portrait, in sum, of a gifted young woman drawn against a background of women’s education, Anglo-Jewry and the greatest scientific discovery of the century. Review: An excellent attempt to strip away the mythology and find the person - This is an excellent book, both insightful and a damned good read. There is so much baggage around Franklin, none of her own making, and this book tries to strip this away and paint a picture of Franklin the person and the scientist. Franklin the person was prickly, snobbish - and perfectly human! As a scientist, I think her most important work was on X-ray crystallography of viruses; I've always felt her role in the DNA story was exaggerated by Watson in his book, in order to make Watson himself seem clever - back in the dawn of time when I was a first year Biochemistry student, my lecturer described the DNA story as "Crick did the work and Watson wrote the book". One of the nicest things I found out from this book was how close she became to Francis Crick, who is described as one of her favourite scientists; not something you'd expect from Watson's silly book. And on that topic, how about a biography of Crick, Ms. Maddox? Review: Sad story appropriate for week of international women's day yesterday - The used book was in very good condition. A very detailed biography of Rosalind Franklin's sad but amazing contributions to science despite the misogyny and difficulties she faced.
| Best Sellers Rank | 85,275 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) 11 in Medical Genetics 50 in Medical Research & Equipment 55 in Engineer Biographies |
| Customer Reviews | 4.5 out of 5 stars 461 Reviews |
D**Y
An excellent attempt to strip away the mythology and find the person
This is an excellent book, both insightful and a damned good read. There is so much baggage around Franklin, none of her own making, and this book tries to strip this away and paint a picture of Franklin the person and the scientist. Franklin the person was prickly, snobbish - and perfectly human! As a scientist, I think her most important work was on X-ray crystallography of viruses; I've always felt her role in the DNA story was exaggerated by Watson in his book, in order to make Watson himself seem clever - back in the dawn of time when I was a first year Biochemistry student, my lecturer described the DNA story as "Crick did the work and Watson wrote the book". One of the nicest things I found out from this book was how close she became to Francis Crick, who is described as one of her favourite scientists; not something you'd expect from Watson's silly book. And on that topic, how about a biography of Crick, Ms. Maddox?
S**T
Sad story appropriate for week of international women's day yesterday
The used book was in very good condition. A very detailed biography of Rosalind Franklin's sad but amazing contributions to science despite the misogyny and difficulties she faced.
A**R
No place for an ending but somewhere to start
The one balanced account of the life and times of Rosalind Franklin that I'm aware of. The rogue Dr Watson strays his own strange ways (but has more to say on the science part) in the Double Helix, Ann Sayres book (which I havent read) I understand to be a friends portrait. To conclude, if you are only going to read one book on the topic, this is your choice, if for some reason, you are really motivated, go for the three of them for a three way perspective. Overall, I enjoyed the book, but I get the feel that Maddox never manages to really get to know her main character because the people who can give a personal account are either too befriended or guilt ridden. Also beware that the science part is by necessity simplified, but at the price of making the scientists look like fools (which they were not).
S**T
A tragic story, which must be known.
This book is well-written, it provides a very personal and moving perspective of Rosalind Franklin's life. The early part of the book felt at first to bit a bit heavy with details on family background, but as I later understood it was necessary to provide context for many interactions of Rosalind Franklin. I'm not a biologist or a physicist, so some of the technical details in the book were too complex to understand, but the writing is clear enough to grasp the general gist of the main events. I highly recommend this book to any one interested in the human side of science, and will be recommending this book to my colleagues.
M**T
Well written and researched book on a scientist who died ...
Well written and researched book on a scientist who died too young. Knew a bit about it before but this book makes you feel you know all the people in it. Shall be looking for more of her work. Very impressed
C**E
Rosalind Franklin
Have always been intrigued by the story of Rosalind Franklin and her unrecognised contribution to the discovery of DNA. Would things have been different if she had been a man or of a different personality? I hope that by now the Nobel prize is awarded solely for the quality and importance of the discoveries made.
B**P
Rosalind Franklin Reappraised
Rosalind Franklin became more widely known after Jim Watson published his famous account of the discovery of DNA - "The Double Helix". Watson's account of his relationship with, and the contribution of, Rosalind Franklin distorted the character of a complex woman and under-rated the contribution she made to Crick & Watson's elucidation of the helical structure of DNA. Since her death, feminists have promoted her career in much the same way as they did for Sylvia Plath, but the case for correcting an inaccurate portrayal of Rosalind Frankin's life and scientific contribution was always more solid. Brenda Maddox has written an admirable and readable biography which both corrects Watson's distortions while giving an intelligible and lucid account of the science behind the Crick-Watson-Franklin (for so it should read) breakthrough leading to the discovery of "the secret of life". This, together with Rosalind Franklin's more comprehensive achievements are best summarised in the obituaries (reproduced in this biography) published in "The Times" and "Nature" by the eminent crystalographer Prof. J.D. Bernal.
K**A
brilliant biography
dont like reviews, because they are very subjective by nature, but this book was absolutely fantastic if you want to learn about the life of a brilliant female scientist.
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