This book starts when scientist Dr Rosalind Franklin moves to Paris, France in 1947 to work at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l’État under Jacques Mering as a chercheur (post-doctoral researcher) in X-ray crystallography. Rosalind quickly becomes a valued member of the research team and she and the married Jacques Mering have an affair. When the affair ends, Rosalind decides to leave France and she starts working at King’s College in Cambridge, UK on the X-ray diffraction of DNA. The novel portrays Maurice Wilkins as a colleague who, rather than collaborating with Franklin, shared her data with Watson and Crick, contributing to the race to discover the DNA structure and the subsequent lack of recognition for Franklin’s work.
Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 1920 – 16 April 1958) was a British chemist and X-Ray crystallographer. Her work was central to understanding the structure of DNA. Rosalind was indeed in love with Jacques Mering, but it is not likely they had an affair as Mering was married and already had a mistress. Franklin died, aged 37, of ovarian cancer.
I really enjoyed this book, Rosalind Franklin was a very interesting woman, incredibly intelligent and her research was pivotal to DNA research among others.
Read for the PopSugar Reading Challenge 2025
Prompt 32: A book about an overlooked woman in history
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
