ROSALIND FRANKLIN: DNA'S DARK LADY
Sunday 15 January 2006 10pm-10.50pm
Today, nearly all scientists agree that the hard evidence used to support Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins' revolutionary theory about DNA was based on the work of Rosalind Franklin, a brilliant molecular biologist and crystallographer.
Yet in 1962, when the three men were awarded a Nobel Prize for the discovery, Franklin wasn't even mentioned. Tragically, she had died four years earlier at the age of 37. Her cancer was probably the result of over-exposure to the radiation she used in making her remarkable x-ray photographs - including Photograph 51 - the image that was the key to revealing the double-helix structure of DNA.
Dark Lady of DNA finds out why Franklin never received credit for her contribution, how the three men gained access to her crucial data and asks who this pioneering woman who worked in the male-dominated world of scientific research was.
