This was a great refresher course.

Excellent post

Rosalind franklin should've been more than a notable mention. Without her x-ray crystallography Watkins & Crick would've had a tough time backing up their theories of DNA being anti-positive and double helical. She has a very very interesting story but long story short she died from ovarian cancer I believe brought on by her exposure to the x-rays from her research at the age of 37.

I,too, thought Rosalind Franklin got short shrift. Of course, she is probably used to that. Her name was acknowledged, but she was not an author, on the landmark paper on the structure of DNA. Maurice Wilkins, third author on the Watson & Crick paper, stole her xray images for Watson & Crick, who deserve credit for deducing the structure of DNA from the images. But the data were obtained by Franklin. Watson is still a self-promoter who is all too happy to exclude mention of Wilkins (and of course Franklin) in his interviews and book.

She definitely got screwed when it came to the discovery of DNA and the subsequent Nobel Prize that she got cheated out on as well.

However, it is considered by most that her work with x-rays had nothing or very little to do with her cancer.

Unlike Elizabeth Ascheim, Rosalind Franklin was fully aware of the dangers of x-rays and took precautions as did the other members of her lab.

Her family has a history of cancer and Ashkenazi Jews, which was Ms. Franklin's ancestory, are known to have a disproportionate higher rate of cancers, especialy ovarian cancer.

If thats true then she shouldn't be on that list.

Did you know that Watson once wrote a novel chronicling how he went about uncovering DNA. In the book he had a character named "Rosy" who was the antagonist impeding his destiny or whatever. What a nice guy he was.

Perhaps that is why she is an "honorable mention"

And no, I had no idea. What an incredibly arrogant son of a biotch. The level of a*****ety that shows, the level of pathetic small-mindness that such a action reflects on Watson is sad. Watson must be a real prick.

Actually, Franklin was already dead by the time the Novel was awarded to Watson & Crick, and there are no posthumous Nobels. So she was cheated, yes, but not in that particular way.

Does anyone here remember the 1986 movie "Race for the Double Helix"?