Rosalind Franklin (1920 – 1958)

discovered the structure of the DNA and the Tobacco Mosaic Virus with X-ray crystallography.
She is a biologist who took part in several explorations. Usually, she used to get a Nobel Prize but she died before.

Her life began on the 27th July 1920 in London, England. From this day on she was a really interested young girl who wanted to explore the world and wanted to be a scientist, and finally you can say that her dream came true. After finishing her school she went to the Newnham College in Cambridge in1938 and studied chemistry. She worked as an assistant research officer at a British Research Association. Interesting is that she learned the outside structure of coal, it is the basis for her discover. After 9 years she went to Paris, France. There, she got to know the crystallographer Jacques Mering, who had a really big influence on her because he was the one who taught her X-ray diffraction. In January 1951, Franklin returned to London where she made the “discovery of her life”. She made pictures of the DNA and found out that the DNA has “A” and “B” parts. On the other hand she recognized that the “sugar-phosphate backbone” is on the outside of the DNA. A great success was that her pictures were published in April 1953 in the magazine “Nature”. Now, it is really important for the structure and knowledge of the DNA. Her desire to explore the world of biology grew every day and so she decided to explore the structure of an virus, the Tobbaco Mosaic Virus. Her success during this exploration is supported by the fact that the magazine “Nature” published again more papers of her.  
In 1956 her life changed immediately. She was taken ill with cancer but she didn’t stop working. That shows her deep-hearted desire to explore the world and understand the world. On the 16th April 1958 she died at the age of 37.

It is easy to write about the DNA. So what exactly is the DNA?

DNA is a abbreviation and stands for “Deoxyribonucleic acid”. The DNA is a machine to control the working of the cells.
The language of the DNA consists of four letters. A = Adenin, T = Thymin, G= Guanin,
C = Cytosin. These four letters are pairs, so A and T and G and C together. It is important that they are always together. These four letters are the alphabet of our cells. And with this alphabet words can be formed ( condons ) and sentences ( genes ), always three letters. That tells your cells what to do. The structure of the DNA is the “double helix”.