Rosalind Franklin In The Race For The Double Helix

1A The movie, The Race For the Double Helix, contained many distinct characters that are portrayals of actual people. To begin, Rosalind Franklin is the main female character in the movie, whose work was to use x-ray crystallography on DNA. She was shown as a multifaceted character, with entirely different personas in her work life and personal life. She was a woman in a field dominated by men, and subject to sexist co-workers inappropriate behavior, and was therefore a little high strung, but only out of necessity. While with her friends in France at the cafe, she was jovial and with a good sense of humour. This scene was crucial in showing that she is not usually a high strung person, but her working environment made her to be. Aside from her personality, her constant and careful photography, calculations,and documentation, showed her as an extremely diligent and studious scientist. Her dedication to thorough research is exemplified through her own

Watson and Crick indubitably viewed the discovery of DNA structure as a race, whereas Franklin was more focused on her own work. Franklin did not necessarily intend to be competitive, she even said, “Does it matter who fits the final piece? We all stand on each other’s shoulders,” but her refusal to share information until she had completed her research came off as competitive. Of course, the actual model of DNA, was a collaborative product since it was made possible by expertise from many scientists other than Watson and Crick, but it was accomplished through an aggressive collecting of information. For this very reason Watson and Crick deserved the Nobel Prize; though they may not have found all the evidence for the DNA structure themselves, they put considerable effort and energy into collecting and synthesizing all the evidence, to find something that nobody else