The English Chemist: The Story of Rosalind Franklin: A Novel
“Read this novel of perseverance, hope and betrayal, and one unbelievable woman who dared to delve into the man’s world of science and succeeded.”
Inspired by the true story of the life and work of a British scientist, shunned and ridiculed by her male colleagues, who defied the odds and led to her discovery of the two-chain helical structure of the life force DNA. Only to be cheated from the Nobel Prize by the men she left in her wake. “I traced their smooth lines, back and forth, back, eight, back. The meandering curve of the infinity sign hides an eternity of secrets . . . And so it began my venture into unravelling some of DNA’s most precious secrets.”
After WWII, science was a man’s profession, and the men were determined to keep it that way. While the war rages on, Rosalind convinces her father to allow her to enroll in the science program at Cambridge University. At that time, women were expected to marry and look after the household. When the Germans bomb Britain, her father constructs a shelter behind their back yard. “I long to return to my halls at Cambridge . . . my thoughts racing as I realize that the war has trapped us indefinitely in this cramped space at the end of the garden.”
In 1939, Rosalind finally takes a seat in front of her class at Cambridge. “Give us a twirl, like the girls at Homerton, the man in the row behind sniggers.” “I feel naked in the glare of humiliation.” And this insulting remark is the beginning of her foray into the man’s world of science.
Rosalind gets a fellowship to find out the molecular structure of DNA. She works with male professors who refuse to refer to her as Dr. Franklin. In addition, they discredit her findings. When she replies that nobody else is working on DNA, Maurice, her supervisor, replies: “It doesn’t make sense for us to both work on DNA . . . go back to your microscopes.” She ends up in tears as she leaves the building. But she goes back the next day to prove she is right about her findings.
The next day Rosalind discovers that Maurice and two other professors are stealing her original model of the two-helical structure of DNA and referring to it as their own. When confronted, “Maurice laughs smugly, as I rush down the corridor to save my work.” A few weeks later she is invited to a colloquium to give a talk about Maurice’s and her findings. However, to her chagrin, after Maurice summarizes their findings, guests start leaving before Rosalind is not even able to start. Jim, one of the scientists stays behind. Before leaving, this is the last thing she hears: “If only she did something nice with her hair.” She wonders if a woman’s appearance is a man’s the only criterion judging her. “The way scientists frame difference is tainted with the same prejudice and cruelty as any profession.”
She notices a letter from Francis and Jim, the other professors, colleagues, to Maurice. “We hope our burglary will at least produce a united front in your group!”
When Kings college is renovated, Rosalind’s room is smaller and colder than all the others. At a later date, she notices a paper on Maurice’s desk calling her a witch. But not even this supreme insult deters Rosalind from pursuing her goal. “Even in the deepest hole of a crisis, like a moon is to the night, a guiding light can be found through it and out on to the other side. Dawn is on the horizon.” Eventually, Maurice and Rosalind’s original model is published.
After cancer snuffs out her young life, and despite her model of DNA, is accepted by the scientific community, the glory is claimed by the men she left in her wake. “Maurice mentioned Rosalind only briefly in the acknowledgements to his Nobel lecture. The rest was covered up, crossed out, and hushed away for some two-thirds of a century to come.”
Read this novel of perseverance, hope and betrayal, and one unbelievable woman who dared to delve into the man’s world of science and succeeded.