By Alec Hogg
A month in London is barely enough to scratch its surface. This is, after all, the city of which back in 1777 writer Samuel Johnson famously stated: “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.”
Meeting South Africans flourishing in their new home has been inspiring. My month’s highlight, however, was being introduced to the late Rosalind Franklin through incomparable Nicole Kidman’s portrayal in the West End play Photograph 51.
It was Franklin, an academic scientist at London’s King’s College, whose x-rayed “Photograph 51” provided the breakthrough in mankind’s analysis of DNA. Sadly, the revolutionary discovery was used by others to garner plaudits that should have been hers, including the Nobel Prize.
But as a woman operating in what was then a deeply chauvinistic field, Franklin never received due credit. She died of cancer at 37 without appreciating the legacy of her life’s work. Much has changed since Dr Franklin’s brief but impactful stay on earth. Most of all, thankfully, the way truth emerges more rapidly nowadays.
From Biznews community George Berger
Rosalind has become a feminist symbol and yes she was treated unfairly by Messrs Crick, Watson and Wilkins. She probably should have shared in the prize but it was undoubtedly the drive and brilliant theorising provided by the cocky Watson and by Crick that impelled them on their way to victory.
