What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure

Cobb, Matthew; Comfort, Nathaniel

doi:10.1038/d41586-023-01313-5

COMMENT
25 April 2023

What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure

Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.

Matthew Cobb⁰ &
Nathaniel Comfort¹

Matthew Cobb
1. Matthew Cobb is professor of zoology at the University of Manchester, UK.
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Nathaniel Comfort
1. Nathaniel Comfort is professor of history of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
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Chemist Rosalind Franklin independently grasped how DNA’s structure could specify proteins. Credit: Photo Researchers/Science History Images/Alamy

James Watson and Francis Crick are two of the twentieth century’s most renowned scientists. The seminal paper from the pair at the University of Cambridge, UK, detailing the discovery of the DNA double helix, was published as part of a trio in Nature 70 years ago this week¹^–³. They are also widely believed to have hit on the structure only after stealing data from Rosalind Franklin, a physical chemist working at King’s College London.

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Nature 616, 657-660 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01313-5

References

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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[1] Watson, J. D. & Crick, F. H. C. Nature 171, 737–738 (1953).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[2] Wilkins, M. H. F., Stokes, A. R. & Wilson, H. R. Nature 171, 738–740 (1953).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[3] Franklin, R. E. & Gosling, R. G. Nature 171, 740–741 (1953).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[4] Avery, O. T., MacLeod, C. M. & McCarty, M. J. Exp. Med. 79, 137–158 (1944).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[5] Franklin, R. Notes for Colloquium on Molecular Structure, November 1951. Franklin Papers FRKN 3/2, Churchill College Cambridge, UK.

[6] Franklin, R. & Gosling, R. Joke death notice for the DNA helix, 1952. Wilkins Papers K/PP178/2/26, King’s College London.

[7] Crick, F. Letter to M. Wilkins, 5 June 1953. Brenner Papers SB/1/1/177, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archives, USA.

[8] Watson, J. D. The Double Helix Ch. 23 (Atheneum, 1968).
Google Scholar

[9] Nature 496, 270 (2013).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[10] Perutz, M. F., Randall, J. T., Thomson, L., Wilkins, M. H. F. & Watson, J. D. Science 164, 1537–1539 (1969).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[11] Cowan, P. Letter to F. Crick, January 1953. Crick Papers Box 2, Folder 11, University of California San Diego, USA.

[12] Randall, J. Notes on current research prepared for the visit of the Biophysics Research Committee, 15 December 1952. Wilkins Papers K/PP178/2/22, King’s College London.

[13] Klug, A. J. Mol. Biol. 335, 3–26 (2004).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[14] Maddox, B. Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA (HarperCollins, 2002).
Google Scholar

[15] Gulland, J. M. Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol. 12, 95–103 (1947).
Article Google Scholar

[16] Watson, J. D. Genes, Girls and Gamow Ch. 4 (Oxford Univ. Press, 2001).
Google Scholar

[17] Crick, F. H. C. & Watson, J. D. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 223, 80–96 (1954).
Article Google Scholar

[18] Bruce, J. Draft article on discovery of double helix, May 1953. Franklin Papers FRKN 6/4, Churchill College Cambridge, UK.

[19] Fourcade, B. Letter to J. Watson, 30 May 1953. Watson Papers JDW/2/2/614, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Archives, USA.

[20] de Chadarevian, S. Isis 94, 90–105 (2003).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

[21] Anon. Notes Rec. R. Soc. London 11, 1–5 (1954).
Article Google Scholar

[22] Judson, H. F. The Eighth Day of Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Biology (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1996).
Google Scholar

[23] Maddox, B. Nature 421, 407–408 (2003).
Article PubMed Google Scholar

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References

Competing Interests

Related Articles

Subjects

Latest on:

Jobs

Global Recruitment for Center Directors and Principal Investigators, GIBH

Faculty(Group Leaders or Principal Investigators) and Postdoc positions

Director of Functional and Immunogenomics Research Strategy

Endowed Chair and Institute Scientist in Molecular Imaging

Postdoc Fellow

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