There is probably no other woman scientist with as much controversy surrounding her life and work as Rosalind Franklin. Franklin was born in London, England on July 25, 1920. On April 16, 1958, at age 37, she died from ovarian cancer. Franklin was responsible for much of the research and discovery work that led to the understanding of the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA; the master molecule of life.

Franklin excelled at science and attended one of the few girls' schools in London that taught physics and chemistry. When she was 15, she decided to become a scientist. Her father was decidedly against higher education for women and wanted Rosalind to be a social worker. Franklin's aunt decided to support her and she agrred to pay for her full college tuition. Within weeks, Franklin's aunt got her mother to support her going to college also. Her father was still against her getting a higher education. Months later, between Franklinís aunt and mother they got her father to go along with it. Franklin was very excited that she was going to college and she was very lucky that she did!

There was so much controversy in her life because Franklin and her research partner did not get along. Franklin and her partner's arguments set them back quite a bit. At the time they were working against another pair to find the story of DNA. Due to Franklin and her partner's fights they other pair found the structure first. They had won the Nobel Prize for it. They won four years after Franklin died because of ovarian cancer. Researchers think that the winners had stolen her research about the DNA.

I think that Franklin herself should have won the prize, also. It was not fair what the other team had done!