How Do The Social Values That Franklin Had To Confront Justify Her Male Colleagues?

Question 5: To what extent do the social values that Franklin had to confront justify her reluctance to engage in discussions about her research progress with her male colleagues? Response: Once Rosalind Franklin had arrived at King’s College, London, she was immediately confronted by the ‘glass ceiling.’ To start, fellow colleague Maurice Wilkens felt threatened by Franklin’s avid approach to research and refusal to share said research before she had made a conclusion. Wilkens approached the of the director of King’s College, Sir Lawrence Brag (who was the youngest Nobel Prize winner at the time), several times requesting that Franklin be dismissed due to the fact that he ‘hadn’t completed any research since her arrival, because he felt she thwarted his research.’ Franklin was also barred from meeting in the ‘men only’ parlor to discuss and spend time with her fellow scientists—due to her gender. Her reasons behind her hesitation to sharing her research was due to the fact that she felt her fellow scientists—namely James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkens—wanted to ‘play games for fame and fortune, without doing the work’ by the research-proof method she so cherished. It was baffling to Franklin that these so called ‘men-geniuses’ were credited and such when they seemed to be
full of presumptions and assumptions based off strictly other’s works and not their own to supplement. In the end, Franklin had to admit that she ‘didn’t see the answer in front of her eyes,’ once Watson had discovered the method in which the double helix operated—and created a model after. Franklin acknowledged that another pair of eyes made science a social matter, in that if Watson hadn’t noticed the answer in her writings, the discovery would have lain dormant for many more years to come. Race for the Double Helix- thoughts: I find it amusing that ‘the bright hope,’ James Watson began his search for the gene—double helix form of DNA—with the intention of seeking fame, fortune, and thrill before even considering the impact his discovery would mark upon the world of science. I don’t believe this approach was fair to scientists like Crick, Franklin, and Pauling, especially. Once Watson arrived at the British University of Cambridge, Cavendish research lab, he was seen in the movie to somewhat distract Crick from the research for proof method Crick had previously been following with his hemoglobin research—reeling him into the ‘fame and fortune game.’ Watson used Crick’s boredom within his hemoglobin research to sound his own assumptions upon. Watson and Crick subsequently spent no time even in the research lab! The only research Watson carried out was his search for women and the form of the double helix in other scientists’ works. In Franklin’s case, Watson attended her lectures and tried to slip her writing out from under her by trying to entice her with the ‘fame and fortune’ to come from the discovery of the DNA form.
During Franklin’s lecture, Watson missed the key to building the proper form of the double helix by arrogantly miss quoting Franklin’s measurements for the form. In the instance that Watson tried to confiscate Franklin’s works, Franklin was sickened by Watson’s scheme and refused to let his goals corrupt the fruit of her countless hours of research. Being the arrogant scientist he was, Watson made a vital mistake by refusing to really give credit to Franklin’s hard
work. Watson used his typical wedeling method to try and sequester the research of Linus Pauling as well. By using Pauling’s son, Watson intended to squeeze as much information out as possible to find out just how far the elder Pauling had come in his gene research. Consequently, Watson was tricked by Pauling’s son, into being pushed to build the first double helix model. Although the elder Pauling hadn’t actually been building the model, Watson and Crick made an embarrassing first attempt, after which they were instructed by the director, Sir Lawrence Brag to abandon. However, refusing to forsake his months of chasing, Watson made another, final attempt with an astounding result—the antiparallel double helix form for DNA. At last, Watson and Crick succeeded by using Crick’s antiparallel theory, Pauling’s genetic code (A=T; G=C), and Franklin’s double helix B-form works. In conclusion, all four of the major players—Watson, Crick, Pauling, and Franklin—in the ‘double helix race’ were geniuses in their own right. I believe Pauling, Franklin, and Crick the truer scientists due to their method of research. Watson did, however, make the final discovery to form the 2nd and final model of the double helix form to DNA. In 1962 Watson and Crick were awarded a Nobel Prize for their work on DNA. Due to the rules and regulations of the Nobel Prize board stating that no credit could be awarded a person, post mortem—Franklin was not given credit, having died four years prior to the awarding.