Review
------
"A finely crafted biography." -- Booklist "Lively, absorbing and even handed . What emerges is the complex
portrait of a passionate, flawed, courageous women." -- Washington Post Book World "A gripping yet nuanced account . a
magnificent biography." -- The Independent "A meticulous biography.[Rosalind Franklin] was the unacknowledged heroine of
, the Sylvia Plath of molecular biology." -- The Economist "In this sympathetic biography, Maddox .illuminates her
subject as a gifted scientist and a complex woman." -- Publishers Weekly "A joy to read." -- Sunday Telegraph "An
excellent biography . Maddox's account of Franklin's last years and premature death is moving and poignant." -- Women's
Review of Books "Able, balanced and well researched." -- Science "Thoughtful and engaging." -- Chicago Tribune A
meticulous biography [Rosalind Franklin] was the unacknowledged heroine of , the Sylvia Plath of molecular biology.
--The Economist In this sympathetic biography, Maddox illuminates her subject as a gifted scientist and a complex woman.
--Publishers Weekly Lively, absorbing and even handed What emerges is the complex portrait of a passionate, flawed,
courageous women. --Washington Post Book World Brenda Maddox has done a great service to science and history. --San
Francisco Chronicle Book Review Thoughtful and engaging. --Chicago Tribune Maddox does justice to her subject as only
the best biographers can. --Los Angeles Times Book Review A vivid three-dimensional portrait of a sciencetist and human
being a moving biography. --Daily Telegraph (London) A gripping yet nuanced account a magnificent biography. --The
Independent A joy to read. --Sunday Telegraph An excellent biography Maddox s account of Franklin s last years and
premature death is moving and poignant. --Women's Review of Books A sensitive, sympathetic look at a women whose life
was greater than the sum if its parts. --New York Times Book Review A finely crafted biography. --Booklist Maddox does
an excellent job of revisiting Franklin s scientific contributions while revealing her complicated personality.
--Library Journal Able, balanced and well researched. --Science "A vivid three-dimensional portrait of a sciencetist and
human being ... a moving biography."--Daily Telegraph (London) "Maddox does an excellent job of revisiting Franklin's
scientific contributions while revealing her complicated personality."--Library Journal "A finely crafted
biography."--Booklist "Lively, absorbing and even handed ... What emerges is the complex portrait of a passionate,
flawed, courageous women."--Washington Post Book World "A joy to read."--Sunday Telegraph "A meticulous
biography...[Rosalind Franklin] was the unacknowledged heroine of , the Sylvia Plath of molecular biology."--The
Economist "Thoughtful and engaging."--Chicago Tribune "A sensitive, sympathetic look at a women whose life was greater
than the sum if its parts."--New York Times Book Review "An excellent biography ... Maddox's account of Franklin's last
years and premature death is moving and poignant."--Women's Review of Books "In this sympathetic biography, Maddox
...illuminates her subject as a gifted scientist and a complex woman."--Publishers Weekly "Maddox does justice to her
subject as only the best biographers can."--Los Angeles Times Book Review "A gripping yet nuanced account ... a
magnificent biography."--The Independent "Able, balanced and well researched."--Science "Brenda Maddox has done a great
service to science and history."--San Francisco Chronicle Book Review
Synopsis
--------
"Our dark lady is leaving us next week"; on the 7th of March, 1953, Maurice Wilkins of King's College,
London, wrote to Francis Crick at the Cavendish laboratories in Cambridge to say that as soon as his obstructive female
colleague was gone from King's, he, Crick, and James Watson, a young American working with Crick, could go full speed
ahead with solving the structure of the molecule that lies in every gene. Not long after, the pair announced to the
world that they had discovered the secret of life. But could Crick and Watson have done it without the "dark lady"? In
two years at King's, Rosalind Franklin had made major contributions to the understanding of . She established its
existence in two forms and she worked out the position of the phosphorous atoms in its back. Most crucially, using
X-ray techniques that may have contributed significantly to her later death from cancer at the tragically young age of
37, she had taken beautiful photographs of the patterns of .
This biography tells the story of Rosalind Franklin - the single-minded young scientist whose contribution to arguably
one of the most significant discoveries of all time went unrecognized, elbowed aside in the rush for glory, and who died
too young to recover her cl to some of that reputation.
