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The Dark Lady Of DNA: The Double Helix By James Watson

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The Dark Lady of DNA is the title of the biography of a young woman scientist whose research was needed by scientists Francis Crick and James Watson for the elucidation of the DNA molecule structure. Franklin’s contribution to the structure of the DNA molecule almost remained obscure even though profound implications for modern medicine were made by the discovery.
Rosalind Franklin was regarded highly for the ability to produce X-ray photographs with high precision, but that was the only thing she was known for at the time and she was unknown in the wider world. The Double Helix is a very popular book written by James Watson in 1968. The book was Watson’s own personal account of DNA puzzling and it was the reason Franklin started to become visible to a small circle of scientists. We might not know how important were Franklin’s lucid x-ray diffractions of hydrated DNA to Watson and Francis Crick if it …show more content…

Watson’s memoir appeared a decade after ovarian cancer took her life. So others responded to the representation of Watson’s female colleague and his story of the DNA. One of the main defenders of Rosalind Franklin is Brenda Maddox that offered a most insightful restoration of the research and life of the young scientist by writing this biography. “The Dark Lady of DNA” talks about many scientific archives and personal papers of scientists that Franklin used to work in Europe, America and England. This biography also offers letters written by friends, family and Franklin her-self. These letters were never undisclosed before. This allowed the author to look into Franklin’s life within the history of her close Anglo-Jewish family, generations of wealthy London bankers and publishers that were discriminated at the time. A lot of Watson’s discriminating assumptions about the young scientist’s background are belied by this

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