Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 192016 April 1958) was a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid), viruses, coal, and graphite. Although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime, her contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were largely unrecognized during her life, for which she has been variously referred to as the "wronged heroine", the "dark lady of DNA", the "forgotten heroine", a "feminist icon", and the "Sylvia Plath of molecular biology". She graduated in 1941 with a degree in natural sciences from Newnham College, Cambridge, and then enrolled for a PhD in physical chemistry under Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, the 1920 Chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. Disappointed by Norrish's lack of enthusiasm, she took up a research position under the British Coal Utilisation Research Ass ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Photo 51
' ''Photo 51'' is an X-ray based fiber diffraction image of a paracrystalline gel composed of DNA fiber taken by Raymond Gosling, a graduate student working under the supervision of Rosalind Franklin in May 1952 at King's College London, while working in Sir John Randall's group. The image was tagged "photo 51" because it was the 51st diffraction photograph that Franklin and Gosling had taken. It was critical evidence in identifying the structure of DNA. Use in discovering structure of DNA According to Raymond Gosling's later account, although photo 51 was an exceptionally clear diffraction pattern of the "B" form of DNA, Franklin was more interested in solving the diffraction pattern of the "A" form of DNA, so she put Gosling's photo 51 to the side. When it had been decided that Franklin would leave King's College, she suggested that Gosling show the photograph to Maurice Wilkins (who would become Gosling's advisor after Franklin left). A few days later, Wilkins showed the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Notting Hill
Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and Portobello Road Market. From around 1870, Notting Hill had an association with artists. 'Notting Hill and Bayswater', Old and New London: Volume 5 (1878), pp. 177-88. For much of the 20th century, the large houses were subdivided into multi-occupancy rentals. Caribbean immigrants were drawn to the area in the 1950s, partly because of the cheap rents, but were exploited by slum landlords like and also ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, ''The Colossus and Other Poems'' (1960) and ''Ariel'' (1965), as well as ''The Bell Jar'', a semi-autobiographical novel published shortly before her death in 1963. ''The Collected Poems'' was published in 1981, which included previously unpublished works. For this collection Plath was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1982, making her the fourth to receive this honour posthumously. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Plath graduated from Smith College in Massachusetts and the University of Cambridge, England, where she was a student at Newnham College. She married fellow poet Ted Hughes in 1956, and they lived together in the United States and then in England. Their relationship was tumultuous and, in her letters, Plath alleges abuse at his hand ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Francis Crick
Francis Harry Compton Crick (8 June 1916 – 28 July 2004) was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist. He, James Watson, Rosalind Franklin, and Maurice Wilkins played crucial roles in deciphering the helical structure of the DNA molecule. Crick and Watson's paper in ''Nature'' in 1953 laid the groundwork for understanding DNA structure and functions. Together with Maurice Wilkins, they were jointly awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material". Crick was an important theoretical molecular biologist and played a crucial role in research related to revealing the helical structure of DNA. He is widely known for the use of the term " central dogma" to summarise the idea that once information is transferred from nucleic acids (DNA or RNA) to proteins, it cannot flow back to nucleic acids. In other words ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Raymond Gosling
Raymond George Gosling (15 July 1926 – 18 May 2015) was a British scientist. While a PhD student at King's College, London he worked under the supervision of Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin. The crystallographic experiments of Franklin and Gosling, together with others by Wilkins, produced data that helped James Watson and Francis Crick to infer the structure of DNA. Early years He was born in 1926 and attended school in Wembley. He studied physics at University College London from 1944 to 1947 and became a hospital physicist at the King's Fund and Middlesex Hospital between 1947 and 1949 before joining King's College London as a research student, from which he eventually received his PhD. Career Work at King's College London and DNA When he arrived at King's College London, Gosling was directed by Sir John Randall to work on the problem of the structure of DNA. Randall was convinced that DNA was the material which transmitted the genetic code. Randall assigned h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Birkbeck College
Birkbeck, University of London (formally Birkbeck College, University of London), is a public university, public research university, located in Bloomsbury, London, England, and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. Established in 1823 as the London Mechanics' Institute by its founder, Sir George Birkbeck, and its supporters, Jeremy Bentham, John Hobhouse, 1st Baron Broughton, J. C. Hobhouse and Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux, Henry Brougham, Birkbeck is one of the few universities to specialise in evening higher education in the United Kingdom. Birkbeck's main building is based in the area of Bloomsbury in London Borough of Camden in Central London. Birkbeck offers over 200 undergraduate and postgraduate programmes that can be studied either part-time or full-time, though nearly all lectures are given in the evening. Birkbeck's academic activities are organised into five constituent faculties which are subdivided into ninete ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Maurice Wilkins
Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins (15 December 1916 – 5 October 2004) was a New Zealand-born British biophysicist and Nobel laureate whose research spanned multiple areas of physics and biophysics, contributing to the scientific understanding of phosphorescence, isotope separation, optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction, and to the development of radar. He is best known for his work at King's College London on the structure of DNA. Wilkins' work on DNA falls into two distinct phases. The first was in 1948–1950, when his initial studies produced the first clear X-ray images of DNA, which he presented at a conference in Naples in 1951 attended by James Watson. During the second phase, 1951–52, Wilkins produced clear "B form" "X" shaped images from squid sperm, images he sent to James Watson and Francis Crick, causing Watson to write "Wilkins... has obtained extremely excellent X-ray diffraction photographs" f DNA In 1953, Wilkins' group coordinator Sir John Randall instru ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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John Randall (physicist)
Sir John Turton Randall, (23 March 1905 – 16 June 1984) was an English physicist and biophysicist, credited with radical improvement of the cavity magnetron, an essential component of centimetric wavelength radar, which was one of the keys to the Allied victory in the Second World War. It is also the key component of microwave ovens. Randall collaborated with Harry Boot, and they produced a valve that could spit out pulses of microwave radio energy on a wavelength of 10 cm. On the significance of their invention, Professor of military history at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, David Zimmerman, states: "The magnetron remains the essential radio tube for shortwave radio signals of all types. It not only changed the course of the war by allowing us to develop airborne radar systems, it remains the key piece of technology that lies at the heart of your microwave oven today. The cavity magnetron's invention changed the world." Randall also led the King's Col ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Double Helix
A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ''The Double'' (1934 film), a German crime comedy film * ''The Double'' (1971 film), an Italian film * ''The Double'' (2011 film), a spy thriller film * ''The Double'' (2013 film), a film based on the Dostoevsky novella * '' Kamen Rider Double'', a 2009–10 Japanese television series ** Kamen Rider Double (character), the protagonist in a Japanese television series of the same name Food and drink * Doppio, a double shot of espresso * Dubbel, a strong Belgian Trappist beer or, more generally, a strong brown ale * A drink order of two shots of hard liquor in one glass * A "double decker", a hamburger with two patties in a single bun Games * Double, action in games whereby a competitor raises the stakes ** , in contract bridge ** Doubl ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jacques Mering
Jacques Mering (3 January 1904 – 29 March 1973) was a Lithuanian-born, naturalised French engineer well known in the fields of X-ray crystallography and mineralogy. He earned the degree of Diploma in Electrical Engineering (''Diplôme d'Ingénieur en Génie Electrique'') from École Spéciale des Travaux Publics, and Bachelor of Science (''Licencié de Sciences'') from Faculté des sciences. He served in the French Army for a year during 1931–1932 following conscription. He was director of research at the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS; the French National Centre for Scientific Research) in Paris, and subsequently Director of CNRS Laboratory in Orléans. Perhaps, Mering is best remembered for his inspiration and influence on the British chemist Rosalind Franklin, whom he trained in X-ray crystallography. Franklin's X-ray crystallographic image, popularised as Photo 51, became the single piece of clue for the discovery of the double-stranded helical structure o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1920 Chair Of Physical Chemistry
The Professorship of Physical Chemistry is a permanently-established professorship at the University of Cambridge, created in 1920. For the first six decades of its existence, the incumbent was also Head of the Department of Physical Chemistry – a separate entity from the then Department of Chemistry, albeit latterly occupying the same building in Lensfield Road. Following the merger of these two departments in the early 1980s, holders of this Chair have often served as Head of the current unified Department of Chemistry. Occupants of the chair to date have been: # Martin Lowry (1920–1936),proposed the Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory # Ronald G. W. Norrish (1937–1965),Nobel laureate in Chemistry (1967), developed the Norrish reaction # Jack Linnett (1965-1975), Master of Sidney Sussex College (1970–1975) Vice-Chancellor (1973–1975), proposed the Linnett double-quartet theory # John Meurig Thomas (1978–1987), Master of Peterhouse (1993–2002), Royal Medallist ( ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ronald George Wreyford Norrish
Ronald George Wreyford Norrish FRS (9 November 1897 – 7 June 1978) was a British chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1967. Education and early life Norrish was born in Cambridge and was educated at The Perse School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He was a former student of Eric Rideal. From an early age he was interested in chemistry, walking up and down Cambridge University chemical laboratory admiring all the equipment. His father encouraged him to construct and equip a small laboratory in his garden shed in his garden and supplied all the chemicals he needed to conduct experiments. This apparatus now forms part of the Science Museum collections - reference shows copper water tank He used to enter competitions for the analysis of mixtures sent round by the Pharmaceutical Journal and often won prizes. In 1915 Norrish won a Foundation Scholarship to Emmanuel College in Cambridge, but by adding a little to his age joined the Royal Field Artillery and serve ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |