Rosalind Franklin was born in London on 25th July 1920. She graduated in Chemistry and Physics in Newnham College in 1941.Rosalind Franklin (25th July 1920-16th april 1938) was invited to Kings College, London to study protein crystallography, which soon became oriented to DNA. The leader of the team assigned her to work on DNA with a graduate student Ray Ghosling. The laboratory's second-in-command, Maurice Wilkins, was on vacation, when he returned, their relationship muddled. He assumed she was to assist his work; she assumed she'd be the only one working on DNA. They had powerful personality differences as well: Franklin direct, quick, decisive, and Wilkins shy, speculative, and passive. This would play a role in the coming years as the race unfolded to find the structure of DNA.
The dark hair and eyes gave her the name Dark lady
Franklin used the X-ray Diffraction to capture DNA, a molecule too small to image using regular photography. She was able to take a photograph of DNA, the now famous photo of ’51. She extracted finer DNA fibers than ever before and arranged them in parallel bundles. All of these allowed her to discover crucial keys to DNA's structure. Wilkins shared her data, without her knowledge, with James Watson and Francis Crick, at Cambridge University, and they pulled ahead in the race, ultimately publishing the proposed structure of DNA in March, 1953. James Watson experienced the eureka moment when shown the photo. He recalls, “The instant I saw the picture my jaw fell open and my pulse began to race… the black cross of reflections which dominated the picture could arise only from a helical structure... mere inspection of the X-ray picture gave several of the vital helical parameters.”