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99-408: Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 1920 – 16 April 1958) was a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid), viruses , coal , and graphite . Although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime, Franklin's contributions to the discovery of
198-498: A molecular model of the B-DNA using data similar to that available to both teams at King's. Based on Franklin's lecture in November 1951 that DNA was helical with either two or three stands, they constructed a triple helix model, which was immediately proven to be flawed. In particular, the model had the phosphate backbone of the molecules forming a central core. But Franklin pointed out that
297-533: A Cambridge graduate, in July 1955. Despite the ARC funding, Franklin wrote to Bernal that the existing facilities remained highly unsuited for conducting research "...my desk and lab are on the fourth floor, my X-ray tube in the basement, and I am responsible for the work of four people distributed over the basement, first and second floors on two different staircases." Franklin continued to explore another major nucleic acid, RNA ,
396-817: A M.S. as professors too (and rarely, some big universities who need part-time or temporary instructors, or temporary staff), but when the positions are scarce and the applicants are many, they might prefer Ph.D. holders instead. Skills that a chemist may need on the job include: Most chemists begin their lives in research laboratories . Many chemists continue working at universities. Other chemists may start companies, teach at high schools or colleges, take samples outside (as environmental chemists ), or work in medical examiner offices or police departments (as forensic chemists ). Some software that chemists may find themselves using include: Increasingly, chemists may also find themselves using artificial intelligence , such as for drug discovery . Chemistry typically
495-403: A Master of Science (M.S.) in chemistry or in a very related discipline may find chemist roles that allow them to enjoy more independence, leadership and responsibility earlier in their careers with less years of experience than those with a bachelor's degree as highest degree. Sometimes, M.S. chemists receive more complex tasks duties in comparison with the roles and positions found by chemists with
594-559: A Ph.D. more often than not. Chemists with a Ph.D. as the highest academic degree are found typically on the research-and-development department of an enterprise and can also hold university positions as professors. Professors for research universities or for big universities usually have a Ph.D., and some research-oriented institutions might require post-doctoral training. Some smaller colleges (including some smaller four-year colleges or smaller non-research universities for undergraduates) as well as community colleges usually hire chemists with
693-604: A bachelor's degree are most commonly involved in positions related to either research assistance (working under the guidance of senior chemists in a research-oriented activity), or, alternatively, they may work on distinct (chemistry-related) aspects of a business, organization or enterprise including aspects that involve quality control, quality assurance, manufacturing, production, formulation, inspection, method validation, visitation for troubleshooting of chemistry-related instruments, regulatory affairs , "on-demand" technical services, chemical analysis for non-research purposes (e.g., as
792-466: A bachelor's degree as their highest academic degree and with the same or close-to-same years of job experience. There are positions that are open only to those that at least have a degree related to chemistry at the master's level. Although good chemists without a Ph.D. degree but with relatively many years of experience may be allowed some applied research positions, the general rule is that Ph.D. chemists are preferred for research positions and are typically
891-652: A boarding school, Lindores School for Young Ladies in Sussex. The school was near the seaside, and the family wanted a good environment for Franklin's delicate health. Franklin was 11 when she went to St Paul's Girls' School in Hammersmith , west London, one of the few girls' schools in London that taught physics and chemistry. At St Paul's, she excelled in science, Latin, and sports. Franklin also learned German, and became fluent in French,
990-435: A combination of education, experience and personal achievements), the higher the responsibility given to that chemist and the more complicated the task might be. Chemistry, as a field, have so many applications that different tasks and objectives can be given to workers or scientists with these different levels of education or experience. The specific title of each job varies from position to position, depending on factors such as
1089-410: A complexity requiring an education with a chemistry degree, are commonly referred to as chemical technicians . Such technicians commonly do such work as simpler, routine analyses for quality control or in clinical laboratories , having an associate degree . A chemical technologist has more education or experience than a chemical technician but less than a chemist, often having a bachelor's degree in
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#17328518482901188-500: A deletion of "A Note on" from the title. As Franklin considered the double helix, she also realised that the structure would not depend on the detailed order of the bases, and noted that "an infinite variety of nucleotide sequences would be possible to explain the biological specificity of DNA". However she did not yet see the complementarity of the base-pairing – Crick and Watson's breakthrough of 28 February, with all its biological significance; nor indeed at this point did she yet have
1287-409: A different field of science with also an associate degree in chemistry (or many credits related to chemistry) or having the same education as a chemical technician but more experience. There are also degrees specific to become a chemical technologist, which are somewhat distinct from those required when a student is interested in becoming a professional chemist. A Chemical technologist is more involved in
1386-562: A double helical DNA backbone (see below). Franklin's two A-DNA manuscripts reached Acta Crystallographica in Copenhagen on 6 March 1953, the day before Crick and Watson had completed their model on B-DNA. Franklin must have mailed them while the Cambridge team was building their model, and certainly had written them before she knew of their work. On 8 July 1953 Franklin modified one of these "in proof" Acta articles, "in light of recent work" by
1485-457: A five-paged manuscript on 17 March titled "A Note on Molecular Configuration of Sodium Thymonucleate." After the Watson–Crick model was known, there appeared to be only one (hand-written) modification after the typeset at the end of the text which states that their data was consistent with the model, and appeared as such in the trio of 25 April 1953 Nature articles; the other modification being
1584-608: A huge influence on her life and career and who helped her to improve her conversational French. Franklin was awarded a research fellowship at Newnham College, with which she joined the physical chemistry laboratory of the University of Cambridge to work under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish , who later won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry . In her one year of work there, Franklin did not have much success. As described by his biographer, Norrish
1683-416: A language she would later find useful. Franklin topped her classes, and won annual awards. Her only educational weakness was in music, for which the school music director, the composer Gustav Holst , once called upon her mother to enquire whether she might have suffered from hearing problems or tonsillitis . With six distinctions, Franklin passed her matriculation in 1938, winning a scholarship for university,
1782-507: A legal request, for testing purposes, or for government or non-profit agencies); chemists may also work in environmental evaluation and assessment. Other jobs or roles may include sales and marketing of chemical products and chemistry-related instruments or technical writing. The more experience obtained, the more independence and leadership or management roles these chemists may perform in those organizations. Some chemists with relatively higher experience might change jobs or job position to become
1881-614: A lot about the holes in coal." At a conference in the autumn of 1946, Weill introduced Franklin to Marcel Mathieu, a director of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), the network of institutes that comprises the major part of the scientific research laboratories supported by the French government. This led to her appointment with Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État in Paris. Franklin joined
1980-468: A manager of a chemistry-related enterprise, a supervisor, an entrepreneur or a chemistry consultant. Other chemists choose to combine their education and experience as a chemist with a distinct credential to provide different services (e.g., forensic chemists, chemistry-related software development, patent law specialists, environmental law firm staff, scientific news reporting staff, engineering design staff, etc.). In comparison, chemists who have obtained
2079-529: A molecule equally central to life as DNA . She again used X-ray crystallography to study the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), an RNA virus . Her meeting with Aaron Klug in early 1954 led to a longstanding and successful collaboration. Klug had just then earned his PhD from Trinity College, Cambridge , and joined Birkbeck in late 1953. In 1955, Franklin published her first major works on TMV in Nature , where she described that all TMV virus particles were of
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#17328518482902178-449: A move that had been planned for some time and that she described (in a letter to Adrienne Weill in Paris) as "moving from a palace to the slums ... but pleasanter all the same". She was recruited by physics department chair John Desmond Bernal, a crystallographer who was a communist, known for promoting female crystallographers. Her new laboratories were housed in 21 Torrington Square, one of
2277-446: A pair of dilapidated and cramped Georgian houses containing several different departments; Franklin frequently took Bernal to task over the careless attitudes of some of the other laboratory staff, notably after workers in the pharmacy department flooded her first-floor laboratory with water on one occasion. Despite the parting words of Bernal to stop her interest in nucleic acids, Franklin helped Gosling to finish his thesis, although she
2376-579: A relative humidity higher than 75%, the DNA fibre became long and thin; when it was drier, it became short and fat. She originally referred to the former as "wet" and the latter as "crystalline." On the structure of the crystalline DNA, Franklin first recorded the analysis in her notebook, which reads: "Evidence for spiral [meaning helical] structure. Straight chain untwisted is highly improbable. Absence of reflections on meridian in χtalline [crystalline] form suggests spiral structure." An immediate discovery from this
2475-555: A research associate in the Medical Research Council's (MRC) Biophysics Unit, directed by John Randall . She was originally appointed to work on X-ray diffraction of proteins and lipids in solution, but Randall redirected Franklin's work to DNA fibres because of new developments in the field, and she was to be the only experienced experimental diffraction researcher at King's at the time. Randall made this reassignment, even before Franklin started working at King's, because of
2574-553: A research associate, Franklin discovered some key properties of DNA, which eventually facilitated the correct description of the double helix structure of DNA. Owing to disagreement with her director, John Randall , and her colleague Maurice Wilkins , Franklin was compelled to move to Birkbeck College in 1953. Franklin is best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA while at King's College London, particularly Photo 51 , taken by her student Raymond Gosling , which led to
2673-707: A vacated house in Putney that belonged to her uncle. With Irene, Rosalind volunteered as an Air Raid Warden and regularly made patrols to see the welfare of people during air raids. Franklin studied the porosity of coal using helium to determine its density. Through this, she discovered the relationship between the fine constrictions in the pores of coals and the permeability of the porous space. By concluding that substances were expelled in order of molecular size as temperature increased, she helped classify coals and accurately predict their performance for fuel purposes and for production of wartime devices such as gas masks . This work
2772-639: Is also known as " the central science ", thus chemists ought to have a well-rounded knowledge about science. At the Master's level and higher, students tend to specialize in a particular field. Fields of specialization include biochemistry , nuclear chemistry , organic chemistry , inorganic chemistry , polymer chemistry , analytical chemistry , physical chemistry , theoretical chemistry , quantum chemistry , environmental chemistry , and thermochemistry . Postdoctoral experience may be required for certain positions. Workers whose work involves chemistry, but not at
2871-550: Is betraying Israel.". He concluded that Iran "should be treated as an extremely dangerous pariah." Franklin was married to Lady Nina Franklin. They resided in Jumby Bay , a private island off the coast of Antigua . Their son Martin Ellis Franklin is the co-founder and chairman of Jarden . Franklin died on 1 February 2024, at the age of 97. This biographical article about a person notable in connection with Judaism
2970-1094: Is divided into several major sub-disciplines. There are also several main cross-disciplinary and more specialized fields of chemistry. There is a great deal of overlap between different branches of chemistry, as well as with other scientific fields such as biology, medicine, physics, radiology , and several engineering disciplines. All the above major areas of chemistry employ chemists. Other fields where chemical degrees are useful include astrochemistry (and cosmochemistry ), atmospheric chemistry , chemical engineering , chemo-informatics , electrochemistry , environmental science , forensic science , geochemistry , green chemistry , history of chemistry , materials science , medical science , molecular biology , molecular genetics , nanotechnology , nuclear chemistry , oenology , organometallic chemistry , petrochemistry , pharmacology , photochemistry , phytochemistry , polymer chemistry , supramolecular chemistry and surface chemistry . Chemists may belong to professional societies specifically for professionals and researchers within
3069-429: Is often related to the work of chemical engineers , who are primarily concerned with the proper design, construction and evaluation of the most cost-effective large-scale chemical plants and work closely with industrial chemists on the development of new processes and methods for the commercial-scale manufacture of chemicals and related products. The roots of chemistry can be traced to the phenomenon of burning . Fire
Rosalind Franklin - Misplaced Pages Continue
3168-714: The 1920 Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge . Disappointed by Norrish's lack of enthusiasm, she took up a research position under the British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The research on coal helped Franklin earn a PhD from Cambridge in 1945. Moving to Paris in 1947 as a chercheur (postdoctoral researcher) under Jacques Mering at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État , she became an accomplished (and famous) X-ray crystallographer. After joining King's College London in 1951 as
3267-710: The British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA) in 1942. The BCURA was located on the Coombe Springs Estate near Kingston upon Thames near the southwestern boundary of London. Norrish acted as advisor to the military at BCURA. John G. Bennett was the director. Marcello Pirani and Victor Goldschmidt , both refugees from the Nazis, were consultants and lectured at BCURA while Franklin worked there. During her BCURA research Franklin initially stayed at Adrienne Weill's boarding house in Cambridge until her cousin, Irene Franklin, proposed that they share living quarters at
3366-588: The Neo-Latin noun chimista , an abbreviation of alchimista ( alchemist ). Alchemists discovered many chemical processes that led to the development of modern chemistry. Chemistry as we know it today, was invented by Antoine Lavoisier with his law of conservation of mass in 1783. The discoveries of the chemical elements has a long history culminating in the creation of the periodic table by Dmitri Mendeleev . The Nobel Prize in Chemistry created in 1901 gives an excellent overview of chemical discovery since
3465-476: The Patterson function to the X-ray pictures of DNA they had produced. This was a long and labour-intensive approach but would yield significant insight into the structure of the molecule. Franklin was fully committed to experimental data and was sternly against theoretical or model buildings, as she said, "We are not going to speculate, we are going to wait, we are going to let the spots on this photograph tell us what
3564-475: The labo (as referred to by the staff) of Mering on 14 February 1947 as one of the fifteen chercheurs (researchers). Mering was an X-ray crystallographer who applied X-ray diffraction to the study of rayon and other amorphous substances, in contrast to the thousands of regular crystals that had been studied by this method for many years. He taught her the practical aspects of applying X-ray crystallography to amorphous substances. This presented new challenges in
3663-609: The 2015 Hague Ethical Guidelines . The highest honor awarded to chemists is the Nobel Prize in Chemistry , awarded since 1901, by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences . Roland Franklin Sir Roland Arthur Ellis Franklin (5 May 1926 – 1 February 2024) was a British-born Antigua and Barbuda -based merchant banker. Roland Franklin was born in 1926 into an affluent and influential British Jewish family. His father, Ellis Arthur Franklin (1894–1964),
3762-481: The 34 Angstrom repeat distance; and established that the structure had C2 symmetry, immediately confirming to Crick that it must contain an equal number of parallel and anti-parallel strands running in opposite directions. Since Franklin had decided to transfer to Birkbeck College and Randall had insisted that all DNA work must stay at King's, Wilkins was given copies of Franklin's diffraction photographs by Gosling. By 28 February 1953 Watson and Crick felt they had solved
3861-509: The B-DNA was a helix , but after Franklin had recorded an asymmetrical image in May 1952, Franklin became unconvinced that the A-DNA was a helix. In July 1952, as a practical joke on Wilkins (who frequently expressed his view that both forms of DNA were helical), Franklin and Gosling produced a funeral notice regretting the 'death' of helical A-DNA, which runs: It is with great regret that we have to announce
3960-595: The King's and Cambridge research teams. The third draft paper was on the B-DNA, dated 17 March 1953, which was discovered years later amongst her papers, by Franklin's Birkbeck colleague, Aaron Klug . He then published in 1974 an evaluation of the draft's close correlation with the third of the original trio of 25 April 1953 Nature DNA articles. Klug designed this paper to complement the first article he had written in 1968 defending Franklin's significant contribution to DNA structure. Klug had written this first article in response to
4059-646: The Pembridge group together with his son Martin E. Franklin . Together they undertook a series of transactions between 1987 and 1989, the largest of which was the $ 1.3 billion hostile takeover of the Dickinson Robinson Group (DRG). Franklin appointed his son as the chief executive officer of DRG, with the goal of breaking up the conglomerate via a series of asset sales. Franklin retired from active business in 1991, leaving Martin Franklin and Ian Ashken to oversee
Rosalind Franklin - Misplaced Pages Continue
4158-615: The School Leaving Exhibition of £30 a year for three years, and £5 from her grandfather. Franklin's father asked her to give the scholarship to a deserving refugee student. Franklin went to Newnham College, Cambridge , in 1938 and studied chemistry within the Natural Sciences Tripos . There, she met the spectroscopist Bill Price , who worked with her as a laboratory demonstrator and who later became one of her senior colleagues at King's College London. In 1941 Franklin
4257-491: The Watson–Crick model, and remained unimpressed. She is reported to have commented, "It's very pretty, but how are they going to prove it?" As an experimental scientist, Franklin seems to have been interested in producing far greater evidence before publishing-as-proven a proposed model. Accordingly, her response to the Watson–Crick model was in keeping with her cautious approach to science. Crick and Watson published their model in Nature on 25 April 1953, in an article describing
4356-440: The [DNA] structure is." The X-ray diffraction pictures, including the landmark Photo 51 taken by Gosling at this time, have been called by John Desmond Bernal as "amongst the most beautiful X-ray photographs of any substance ever taken". By January 1953 Franklin had reconciled her conflicting data, concluding that both DNA forms had two helices, and had started to write a series of three draft manuscripts, two of which included
4455-529: The commotion. Wilkins commiserated with his harried friend and then showed Watson Franklin's DNA X-ray image. Watson, in turn, showed Wilkins a prepublication manuscript by Pauling and Robert Corey , which contained a DNA structure remarkably like their first incorrect model. In November 1951 James Watson and Francis Crick of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge University had started to build
4554-469: The complete organisation of the DNA strands, as the possibility of two strands running in opposite directions did not occur to her. Towards the end of February Franklin began to work out the indications of double strands, as she noted: "Structure B does not fit single helical theory, even for low layer-lines." It soon dawned to her that the B-DNA and A-DNA were structurally similar, and perceived A-DNA as an "unwound version" of B-DNA. Franklin and Gosling wrote
4653-407: The composition and properties of unfamiliar substances, as well as to reproduce and synthesize large quantities of useful naturally occurring substances and create new artificial substances and useful processes. Chemists may specialize in any number of subdisciplines of chemistry . Materials scientists and metallurgists share much of the same education and skills with chemists. The work of chemists
4752-403: The conduct of experiments and the interpretation of results. Franklin applied them to further problems related to coal and to other carbonaceous materials, in particular the changes to the arrangement of atoms when these are converted to graphite. She published several further papers on this work which has become part of the mainstream of the physics and chemistry of coal and carbon. Franklin coined
4851-536: The correct structures of the bases, so even if she had tried, she would not have been able to make a satisfactory structure. Science historians Nathaniel C. Comfort , of Johns Hopkins University , and Matthew Cobb , of the University of Manchester , explained that "She did not have time to make these final leaps, because Watson and Crick beat her to the answer." Weeks later, on 10 April, Franklin wrote to Crick for permission to see their model. Franklin retained her scepticism for premature model building even after seeing
4950-477: The death, on Friday 18th July 1952 of DNA helix (crystalline). Death followed a protracted illness which an intensive course of Besselised [referring to Bessel function that was used to analyse the X-ray diffraction patterns] injections had failed to relieve. A memorial service will be held next Monday or Tuesday. It is hoped that Dr M H F Wilkins will speak in memory of the late helix. [Signed Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling.] During 1952 they worked at applying
5049-453: The discovery of the DNA double helix for which Francis Crick , James Watson , and Maurice Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. While Gosling actually took the famous Photo 51, Maurice Wilkins showed it to James Watson without her permission. Watson suggested that Franklin would have ideally been awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry , along with Wilkins but it
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#17328518482905148-512: The double-helical structure of DNA with only a footnote acknowledging "having been stimulated by a general knowledge of Franklin and Wilkins' 'unpublished' contribution." Actually, although it was the bare minimum, they had just enough specific knowledge of Franklin and Gosling's data upon which to base their model. As a result of a deal struck by the two laboratory directors, articles by Wilkins and Franklin, which included their X-ray diffraction data, were modified and then published second and third in
5247-475: The entire manuscript for him. Franklin's research grant from ARC expired at the end of 1957, and she was never given the full salary proposed by Birkbeck. After Bernal requested ARC chairman Lord Rothschild , she was given a one-year extension ending in March 1958. Chemist A chemist (from Greek chēm(ía) alchemy; replacing chymist from Medieval Latin alchemist ) is a graduated scientist trained in
5346-420: The exact roles of these chemistry-related workers as standard for that given level of education. Because of these factors affecting exact job titles with distinct responsibilities, some chemists might begin doing technician tasks while other chemists might begin doing more complicated tasks than those of a technician, such as tasks that also involve formal applied research, management, or supervision included within
5445-481: The experimental X-ray effort there would be for the moment only yourself and Gosling." Randall's lack of communication about this reassignment significantly contributed to the well documented friction that developed between Wilkins and Franklin. When Wilkins returned, he handed over the Signer DNA and Gosling to Franklin. Franklin, now working with Gosling, started to apply her expertise in X-ray diffraction techniques to
5544-421: The eye while being concise, impatient and direct unnerved many of her colleagues. In stark contrast, Wilkins was very shy, and slowly calculating in speech while he avoided looking anyone directly in the eye. With the ingenious humidity-controlling camera, Franklin was soon able to produce X-ray images of better quality than those of Wilkins. She immediately discovered that the DNA sample could exist in two forms: at
5643-570: The family adopted the surname "Ellis".) From early childhood, Franklin showed exceptional scholastic abilities. At age six, she joined her brother Roland at Norland Place School , a private day school in West London. At that time, her aunt Mamie (Helen Bentwich), described her to her husband: "Rosalind is alarmingly clever – she spends all her time doing arithmetic for pleasure, and invariably gets her sums right." Franklin also developed an early interest in cricket and hockey . At age nine, she entered
5742-919: The field of chemistry, such as the Royal Society of Chemistry in the United Kingdom, the American Chemical Society (ACS) in the United States, or the Institution of Chemists in India. The "Global Chemists' Code of Ethics" suggests several ethical principles that all chemists should follow: This code of ethics was codified in a 2016 conference held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia , run by the American Chemical Society. The points listed are inspired by
5841-705: The final DRG asset sales. In 1992 they returned to the US with the intention of using their experience at DRG to build, rather than break up companies. In June 2015, Franklin published an opinion piece in j. , a Northern California Jewish newspaper, arguing that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action , also known as the Iran nuclear deal, would be "the first step on the path to World War III." He went on to compare U.S. President Barack Obama to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain prior to World War II, suggesting, "Obama
5940-541: The head of the Cavendish Laboratory, Lawrence Bragg , to encourage Watson and Crick to resume their own model building. Six weeks of intense efforts followed, as they tried to guess how the nucleotide bases pack into the core of the DNA structure, within the broad parameters set by the experimental data from the team at King's, that the structure should contain one or more helices with a repeat distance of 34 Angstroms, with probably ten elements in each repeat; and that
6039-583: The hydrophilic phosphate groups should be on the outside (though as Watson and Crick struggled to come up with a structure they at times departed from each of these assumptions during the process). Crick and Watson received a further impetus in the middle of February 1953 when Crick's thesis advisor, Max Perutz , gave Crick a copy of a report written for a Medical Research Council biophysics committee visit to King's in December 1952, containing many of Franklin's crystallographic calculations. This decisively confirmed
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#17328518482906138-656: The incomplete picture of Franklin's work depicted in James Watson 's 1968 memoir, The Double Helix . As vividly described by Watson, he travelled to King's on 30 January 1953 carrying a preprint of Linus Pauling 's incorrect proposal for DNA structure. Since Wilkins was not in his office, Watson went to Franklin's lab with his urgent message that they should all collaborate before Pauling discovered his error. The unimpressed Franklin became angry when Watson suggested she did not know how to interpret her own data. Watson hastily retreated, backing into Wilkins who had been attracted by
6237-419: The kind of industry, the routine level of the task, the current needs of a particular enterprise, the size of the enterprise or hiring firm, the philosophy and management principles of the hiring firm, the visibility of the competency and individual achievements of the one seeking employment, economic factors such as recession or economic depression , among other factors, so this makes it difficult to categorize
6336-425: The management and operation of the equipment and instrumentation necessary to perform chemical analyzes than a chemical technician. They are part of the team of a chemical laboratory in which the quality of the raw material, intermediate products and finished products is analyzed. They also perform functions in the areas of environmental quality control and the operational phase of a chemical plant. In addition to all
6435-597: The molecular structures of viruses. On the day before she was to unveil the structure of tobacco mosaic virus at an international fair in Brussels, Franklin died of ovarian cancer at the age of 37 in 1958. Her team member Aaron Klug continued her research, winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1982. Franklin was born in 50 Chepstow Villas, Notting Hill , London, into an affluent and influential British Jewish family. Franklin's father, Ellis Arthur Franklin (1894–1964),
6534-478: The next day, 18 March, suggesting that Franklin would have learned of it much later since she had moved to Birkbeck. Further scrutiny of her notebook revealed that Franklin had already thought of the helical structure for B-DNA in February 1953 but was not sure of the number of strands, as she wrote: "Evidence for 2-chain (or 1-chain helix)." Her conclusion on the helical nature was evident, though she failed to understand
6633-416: The next year. Model building had been applied successfully in the elucidation of the structure of the alpha helix by Linus Pauling in 1951, but Franklin was opposed to prematurely building theoretical models, until sufficient data were obtained to properly guide the model building. She took the view that building a model was to be undertaken only after enough of the structure was known. Franklin's conviction
6732-458: The phosphate groups near the outside. Franklin then named " A " and "B" respectively for the "crystalline" and "wet" forms. (The biological functions of A-DNA were discovered only 60 years later.) Because of the intense personality conflict developing between Franklin and Wilkins, Randall divided the work on DNA. Franklin chose the data rich "A" form while Wilkins selected the "B" form. By the end of 1951 it became generally accepted at King's that
6831-538: The pioneering work by DNA researcher Maurice Wilkins , and he reassigned Raymond Gosling , the graduate student who had been working with Wilkins, to be her assistant. In 1950 Swiss chemist Rudolf Signer in Berne prepared a highly purified DNA sample from calf thymus . He freely distributed the DNA sample, later referred to as the Signer DNA, in early May 1950 at the meeting of the Faraday Society in London, and Wilkins
6930-450: The preferred choice for the highest administrative positions on big enterprises involved in chemistry-related duties. Some positions, especially research oriented, will only allow those chemists who are Ph.D. holders. Jobs that involve intensive research and actively seek to lead the discovery of completely new chemical compounds under specifically assigned monetary funds and resources or jobs that seek to develop new scientific theories require
7029-425: The problem enough for Crick to proclaim (in the local pub) that they had "found the secret of life". However, they knew they must complete their model before they could be certain. The closeness of fit to the experimental data from King's was an essential corroboration of the structure. Watson and Crick finished building their model on 7 March 1953, a day before they received a letter from Wilkins stating that Franklin
7128-450: The progressive solubility of DNA crystals in water meant that the strongly hydrophilic phosphate groups were likely to be on the outside of the structure; while the experimental failure to titrate the CO- and NH 2 groups of the bases meant that these were more likely to be inaccessible in the interior of the structure. This initial setback led Watson and Crick to focus on other topics for most of
7227-414: The responsibilities of that same job title. The level of supervision given to that chemist also varies in a similar manner, with factors similar to those that affect the tasks demanded for a particular chemist It is important that those interested in a Chemistry degree understand the variety of roles available to them (on average), which vary depending on education and job experience. Those Chemists who hold
7326-457: The same issue of Nature , seemingly only in support of the Crick and Watson theoretical paper which proposed a model for the B-DNA. Most of the scientific community hesitated several years before accepting the double helix proposal. At first mainly geneticists embraced the model because of its obvious genetic implications. Franklin left King's College London in mid-March 1953 for Birkbeck College , in
7425-473: The same length. This was in direct contradiction to the ideas of the eminent virologist Norman Pirie , though Franklin's observation ultimately proved correct. Franklin assigned the study of the complete structure of TMV to her PhD student Holmes. They soon discovered (published in 1956) that the covering of TMV was protein molecules arranged in helices. Her colleague Klug worked on spherical viruses with his student Finch, with Franklin coordinating and overseeing
7524-568: The start of the 20th century. At the Washington Academy of Sciences during World War I , it was said that the side with the best chemists would win the war. Jobs for chemists generally require at least a bachelor's degree in chemistry, which takes four years. However, many positions, especially those in research, require a Master of Science or a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.). Most undergraduate programs emphasize mathematics and physics as well as chemistry, partly because chemistry
7623-446: The structure of DNA were largely unrecognised during her life, for which Franklin has been variously referred to as the "wronged heroine", the "dark lady of DNA", the "forgotten heroine", a "feminist icon", and the " Sylvia Plath of molecular biology". Franklin graduated in 1941 with a degree in natural sciences from Newnham College, Cambridge , and then enrolled for a PhD in physical chemistry under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish ,
7722-536: The structure of DNA. She used a new fine-focus X-ray tube and microcamera ordered by Wilkins, but which she refined, adjusted and focused carefully. Drawing upon her physical chemistry background, a critical innovation Franklin applied was making the camera chamber that could be controlled for its humidity using different saturated salt solutions. When Wilkins enquired about this improved technique, she replied in terms which offended him as she had "an air of cool superiority". Franklin's habit of intensely looking people in
7821-497: The study of chemistry , or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms . Chemists carefully measure substance proportions, chemical reaction rates, and other chemical properties . In Commonwealth English, pharmacists are often called chemists. Chemists use their knowledge to learn
7920-704: The subjects of electricity, magnetism, and the history of the Great War in the evenings, later becoming the vice principal. Franklin's parents helped settle Jewish refugees from Europe who had escaped the Nazis , particularly those from the Kindertransport . They took in two Jewish children to their home, and one of them, a nine-year-old Austrian, Evi Eisenstädter, shared Jenifer's room. (Evi's father Hans Mathias Eisenstädter had been imprisoned in Buchenwald , and after liberation,
8019-494: The team was joined by an American post-doctoral student Donald Caspar . He worked on the precise location of RNA molecules in TMV. In 1956, Caspar and Franklin published individual but complementary papers in the 10 March issue of Nature , in which they showed that the RNA in TMV is wound along the inner surface of the hollow virus. Caspar was not an enthusiastic writer, and Franklin had to write
8118-425: The terms graphitising and non-graphitising carbon . The coal work was covered in a 1993 monograph, and in the regularly-published textbook Chemistry and Physics of Carbon . Mering continued the study of carbon in various forms, using X-ray diffraction and other methods. In 1950 Franklin was granted a three-year Turner & Newall Fellowship to work at King's College London . In January 1951 she started working as
8217-412: The training usually given to chemical technologists in their respective degree (or one given via an associate degree), a chemist is also trained to understand more details related to chemical phenomena so that the chemist can be capable of more planning on the steps to achieve a distinct goal via a chemistry-related endeavor. The higher the competency level achieved in the field of chemistry (as assessed via
8316-472: The work. As a team, from 1956 they started publishing seminal works on TMV, cucumber virus 4 and turnip yellow mosaic virus . Franklin also had a research assistant , James Watt, subsidised by the National Coal Board and was now the leader of the ARC group at Birkbeck. The Birkbeck team members continued working on RNA viruses affecting several plants, including potato, turnip, tomato and pea. In 1955
8415-638: Was Herbert Samuel (later Viscount Samuel), who was the Home Secretary in 1916 and the first practising Jew to serve in the British Cabinet . Her aunt, Helen Caroline Franklin, known in the family as Mamie, was married to Norman de Mattos Bentwich , who was the Attorney General in the British Mandate of Palestine . Helen was active in trade union organisation and the women's suffrage movement and
8514-469: Was "obstinate and almost perverse in argument, overbearing and sensitive to criticism". He could not decide upon the assignment of work for her. At that time Norrish was succumbing due to heavy drinking. Franklin wrote that he made her despise him completely. Resigning from Norrish's Lab, Franklin fulfilled the requirements of the National Service Acts by working as an assistant research officer at
8613-449: Was a double helical molecule. When Klug first examined Franklin's documents after her death, he initially came to an impression that Franklin was not convinced of the double helical nature until the knowledge of the Cambridge model. But Klug later discovered the original draft of the manuscript (dated 17 March 1953) from which it became clear that Franklin had already resolved the correct structure. The news of Watson–Crick model reached King's
8712-568: Was a merchant banker. His sister was Rosalind Franklin , the scientist whose research led to discovery of the structure of DNA. His brother was writer, bibliographer, and antiquarian Colin Ellis Franklin . Franklin was a merchant banker, and a director of Keyser Ullman , the British merchant bank that failed in the 1973-74 banking crisis. Franklin had a long business partnership with the corporate raider James Goldsmith . As Goldsmith began winding down his US operations in 1987, Roland Franklin set up
8811-409: Was a mystical force that transformed one substance into another and thus was of primary interest to mankind. It was fire that led to the discovery of iron and glasses . After gold was discovered and became a precious metal, many people were interested to find a method that could convert other substances into gold. This led to the protoscience called alchemy . The word chemist is derived from
8910-413: Was a politically liberal London merchant banker who taught at the city's Working Men's College , and her mother was Muriel Frances Waley (1894–1976). Rosalind was the elder daughter and the second child in the family of five children. David (1919–1986) was the eldest brother while Colin (1923–2020), Roland (1926–2024), and Jenifer (born 1929) were her younger siblings. Franklin's paternal great-uncle
9009-415: Was awarded second-class honours from her final exams. The distinction was accepted as a bachelor's degree in qualifications for employment. Cambridge began awarding titular BA and MA degrees to women from 1947 and the previous women graduates retroactively received these earned degrees. In her last year at Cambridge, Franklin met a French refugee Adrienne Weill, a former student of Marie Curie , who had
9108-453: Was finally leaving and they could put "all hands to the pump". This was also one day after Franklin's two A-DNA papers had reached Acta Crystallographica . Wilkins came to see the model the following week, according to Franklin's biographer Brenda Maddox , on 12 March, and allegedly informed Gosling on his return to King's. One of the most critical and overlooked moments in DNA research was how and when Franklin realised and conceded that B-DNA
9207-515: Was later a member of the London County Council . Franklin's uncle, Hugh Franklin , was another prominent figure in the suffrage movement, although his actions therein embarrassed the Franklin family. Rosalind's middle name, "Elsie", was in memory of Hugh's first wife, who died in the 1918 flu pandemic . Her family was actively involved with the Working Men's College , where her father taught
9306-542: Was no longer his official supervisor. Together, they published the first evidence of double helix in the A form of DNA in the 25 July issue of Nature . At the end of 1954, Bernal secured funding for Franklin from the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), which enabled her to work as a senior scientist supervising her own research group. John Finch , a physics student from King's College London , subsequently joined Franklin's group, followed by Kenneth Holmes ,
9405-458: Was not possible because the pre-1974 rule dictated that a Nobel prize could not be awarded posthumously unless the nomination had been made for a then-alive candidate before 1 February of the award year and Franklin died a few years before 1962 when the discovery of the structure of DNA was recognised by the Nobel committee. Working under John Desmond Bernal , Franklin led pioneering work at Birkbeck on
9504-449: Was one of the recipients. Even using crude equipment, Wilkins and Gosling had obtained a good-quality diffraction picture of the DNA sample which sparked further interest in this molecule. But Randall had not indicated to them that he had asked Franklin to take over both the DNA diffraction work and guidance of Gosling's thesis. It was while Wilkins was away on holiday that Randall, in a letter in December 1950, assured Franklin that "as far as
9603-528: Was only reinforced when Pauling and Corey also came up in the late 1952 (published in February 1953) with an erroneous triple helix model. Ever cautious, Franklin wanted to eliminate misleading possibilities. Photographs of her Birkbeck work table show that Franklin routinely used small molecular models, although certainly not ones on the grand scale successfully used at Cambridge for DNA. The arrival in Cambridge of Linus Pauling's flawed paper in January 1953 prompted
9702-439: Was that the phosphate group lies outside of the main DNA chain; Franklin, however could not make out whether there could be two or three chains. She presented their data at a lecture in November 1951, in King's College London. In her lecture notes, Franklin wrote the following: The results suggest a helical structure (which must be very closely packed) containing 2, 3 or 4 co-axial nucleic acid chains per helical unit, and having
9801-468: Was the basis of Franklin's PhD thesis The physical chemistry of solid organic colloids with special reference to coal for which the University of Cambridge awarded her a PhD in 1945. It was also the basis of several papers. With World War II ending in 1945, Franklin asked Adrienne Weill for help and to let her know of job openings for "a physical chemist who knows very little physical chemistry, but quite
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