Rosalind Franklin picked by Kate Bingham, former head of the UK government's vaccine taskforce
Dame Kate Bingham picks Rosalind Franklin, who contributed to our understanding of viruses, coal and DNA.
Rosalind Franklin was born in 1920 and studied Natural Sciences. After working in Paris at the Laboratoire Central - where she became an x-ray crystallographer - she moved to King's College London. Here she helped to take the famous Photograph 51 which led to the discovery of the double helix shape of DNA. Her contribution was famously and disgracefully downplayed by the men who won the Nobel Prize. Later at Birkbeck College she undertook pioneering work of the structure of viruses before dying of ovarian cancer, aged just 37.
Nominating Rosalind Franklin is Kate Bingham. She chaired the UK government's Vaccine Taskforce, and she also attended the same school as Rosalind Franklin - St Paul's Girls' School in London. Further contributions from Dr Patricia Fara of Clare College, Cambridge, and Howard Bailes, archivist of St Paul's School.
Archive contributors include Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins and Colin Franklin.
The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde
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- Tue 30 Aug 2022 16:30Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
- Fri 2 Sep 2022 23:00Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
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Great Lives
Biographical series in which guests choose someone who has inspired their lives.