This summer I had an urge to read something about Rosalind Franklin, the scientist who actually discovered the structure of DNA and died young at 37. I liked this biography but I was struck by how often the author quoted friends, colleagues, and associates who commented on Franklin's looks...she was "quite striking," "pretty." I guess it was the 1940s and '50s and that was how women were judged but I thought it was excessive. Now I want to read The Double Helix by James Watson. ( )

Franklin was a renowned scientist in her own right, she established her reputation in X-ray photography starting with coal and moving onto viruses and DNA. She was a feisty character, and in her tragically short career she made as many friends as enemies.

Crick and Watson are the guys credited with discovering the layout of DNA, but they could not have done it without sight of some of her magnificent X-ray photographs of DNA. Theses had been passed to them without her knowledge, and it was the clarity of these that gave them the insight to solve the mystery of the construction of DNA.

It is thought that she was only one or two steps away from solving this herself, as she as ascertained where certain atoms were and understood the way it behaved.

She was a enthusiastic traveller, and spent time walking throughout Europe, and travelling all over the states. It was said that America bought out her sunny side, and her collaborations with American scientists were fruitful.

As she as taking these X-ray photographs, she was not aware of the damage that that they were doing to her, as they had no protection, even leaning over the camera when it was taking the images. She subcommand to cancer, and she died at the age of 38.

Crick and Watson are the pillars in the discovery of DNA, but she was the keystone. ( )

The first third of this book is painfully slow, lots of tiny details about Rosalind Franklin's life that seem to be mostly minutiae.

Fortunately, the book really picks up thereafter. The search for the structure of DNA was fast-paced, full of many interesting scientists, and had a major impact that is still felt today. Most folks already know the story of this search, especially considering that Francis and Crick received the Nobel Prize for their work. What is unfortunate is how little recognition Franklin received for her work in the process, without which it's likely the mystery of the double helix would have taken far longer to unravel. Everybody should read this book, if only to get a better story of the way women scientists have been treated in the past, and are treated, even today.

Probably the most ironic part of this book is the character profile of Rosalind Franklin. Any man described in a similar manner would just be taken as a stereotypical male scientist. But somehow a woman acting aloof with awkward social skills merits hundreds of pages of speculation about why and how she was the way she was, and how it hugely impacted her life and research. ( )

When asked to name women in science, Rosalind Franklin is always high on my list. Yet before reading this book, I knew only the barest facts about her: that she was gifted at x-ray crystallography, that Watson & Crick's DNA model would have been impossible (or really, terribly inaccurate) without her, and that her results were used by them in a questionable and poorly acknowledged manner. That's it. It was high time I read this book.

Thoroughly researched, this seems as an authoritative account of Franklin's life as one is likely to get. It starts slow, with an extensive exploration of Franklin's family -- parents, grandparents, uncles, their status, etc. I am sure it was helpful in establishing a complete portrait of Rosalind, but it was a bit of a chore to slog through.

But once Rosalind was on the scene, it was hard not to adore (and later sympathize with) her. She was smart, opinionated, and driven -- qualities the world of science (as well as the world in general) was badly prepared to appreciate in a woman. Still, she forged a way for herself, and authored an amazing number of peer-reviewed publications on some of the most pressing scientific problems of the day.

Surprisingly, at the end of the book I was less irritated on Franklin's behalf, and more just irritated (in a tired way) with Watson's immature self-aggrandizement, and disillusioned with the whole Nobel process. The primary difference between this book and The Double Helix is that Watson's little book is still clinging to a narrative in which great scientific breakthroughs are made by one or two people thinking in a room, whereas this book makes a solid case that modern science is group work.

Sometimes dry, but highly recommended. ( )

Maddox does a good job portraying Franklin as a real woman instead of a feminist icon or a minor researcher, and gives a good balance between personal details and scientific information. Although she is clearly on Franklin's 'side', she is is pretty even-handed in presenting the controversy over Watson & Crick's use of Franklin's data.

Overall, a very readable biography which I would recommend. ( )