Rosalind Franklin was a British biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer who made significant contributions to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. Born on July 25, 1920, in London, Franklin’s research on DNA’s molecular structure provided crucial data that were instrumental in the discovery of the DNA double helix. Despite her pivotal role, her work was often overlooked during her lifetime, and credit for the DNA discovery was largely attributed to James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins, who used Franklin’s data without her permission. Franklin also made important contributions to the study of viruses, laying the groundwork for advancements in virology. She died of ovarian cancer on April 16, 1958, at the age of 37. Posthumously, her contributions have been increasingly recognized, and she is now celebrated for her groundbreaking scientific achievements.

Rosalind Franklin Quotes

1. “Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated.”
— Rosalind Franklin

2. “Science, for me, gives a partial explanation for life. In so far as it goes, it is based on fact, experience and experiment.”
— Rosalind Franklin

3. “In my view, all that is necessary for faith is the belief that by doing our best we shall succeed in our aims: the improvement of mankind.”
— Rosalind Franklin

4. “Conclusion: Big helix in several chains, phosphates on outside, phosphate-phosphate inter-helical bonds disrupted by water. Phosphate links available to proteins.”
— Rosalind Franklin

5. “The results suggest a helical structure which must be very closely packed containing probably 2, 3 or 4 coaxial nucleic acid chains per helical unit and having the phosphate groups near the outside.”
— Rosalind Franklin

6. “We wish to discuss a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid. (D.N.A.). This structure has novel features which are of considerable biologic interest.”
— Rosalind Franklin

7. “Your faith rests on the future of yourself and others as individuals, mine in the future and fate of our successors. It seems to me that yours is the more selfish”
— Rosalind Franklin

8. “You look at science (or at least talk of it) as some sort of demoralizing invention of man, something apart from real life, and which must be cautiously guarded and kept separate from everyday existence.”
— Rosalind Franklin

9. “While the biological properties of deoxypentose nucleic acid suggest a molecular structure containing great complexity, X-ray diffraction studies described here…show the basic molecular configuration has great simplicity.”
— Rosalind Franklin

10. “My method of thought and reasoning is influenced by a scientific training—if that were not so my scientific training will have been a waste and a failure.”
— Rosalind Franklin

11. “I maintain that faith in this world is perfectly possible without faith in another world.”
— Rosalind Franklin

12. “What’s the use of doing all this work if we don’t get some fun out of this?”
— Rosalind Franklin

13. “Traveling around in a little tin box isolates one from the people and the atmosphere of the place in a way that I have never experienced before.”
— Rosalind Franklin

14. “I would willingly go more primitive if it were necessary to preserve my freedom.”
— Rosalind Franklin

15. “Your theories are those which you and many other people find easiest and pleasantest to believe, but so far as I can see, they have no foundation other than they leaf to a pleasanter view of life (and an exaggerated idea of our own importance).”
— Rosalind Franklin