Rosalind Franklin: DNA's unsung hero - Cláudio L. Guerra

翻译人员: Yuyang Zhao 校对人员: 易帆 余

The discovery of the structure of DNA

脱氧核糖核酸 (DNA) 结构的发现

was one of the most important scientific achievements in the last century,

是上个世纪最重要的科学成就之一，

in human history, in fact.

应该说是人类历史上 最重要的科学成就之一。

The now-famous double helix is almost synonymous with Watson and Crick,

现在著名的双螺旋结构 几乎成了沃森和克里克的同义词，

two of the scientists who won the Nobel Prize for figuring it out.

这两位科学家也因此 获得了诺贝尔奖。

But there's another name you may know, too,

但你可能还认识一个名字，

Rosalind Franklin.

罗莎琳·富兰克林。

You may have heard that her data supported Watson and Crick's brilliant idea,

你可能听说过，她的数据 支持了沃森和克里克的天才想法，

or that she was a plain-dressing, belligerent scientist,

或者她是个不修边幅， 争强好胜的科学家，

which is how Watson actually described her in "The Double Helix."

这其实是沃森在 《双螺旋》這本書中，对她的描述。

But thanks to Franklin's biographers,

但幸亏富兰克林传记的作者

who investigated her life and interviewed many people close to her,

调查了她的生平 并采访了很多熟悉她的人，

we now know that that account is far from true,

现在我们知道這些事 与实际状况差距很大。

and her scientific contributions have been vastly underplayed.

她的科学贡献也被大大的低估了。

Let's hear the real story.

让我们来看看事实是怎样的。

Rosalind Elsie Franklin was born in London in 1920.

罗莎琳·艾尔希·富兰克林 1920 年出生在伦敦，

She wanted to be a scientist ever since she was a teenager,

从青少年起，她就想成为一名科学家，

which wasn't a common or easy career path for girls at that time.

在当时，这对女孩子来说 是很不寻常且非常困难的职业规划。

But she excelled at science anyway.

但她在科学方面天赋异禀，

She won a scholarship to Cambridge to study chemistry,

她获得了奖学金， 前往剑桥大学研究化学。

where she earned her Ph.D.,

并获得了博士学位。

and she later conducted research on the structure of coal

随后她进行了煤炭结构的研究，

that led to better gas masks for the British during World War II.

这让英国在第二次世界大战期间 拥有了更好的防毒面具。

In 1951, she joined King's College

1951年，她进入国王学院，

to use x-ray techniques to study the structure of DNA,

利用 X 射线技术 来研究 DNA 的结构。

then one of the hottest topics in science.

这是当时最火热的科研课题之一。

Franklin upgraded the x-ray lab and got to work

富兰克林改进了 X 射线实验室，

shining high-energy x-rays on tiny, wet crystals of DNA.

并开始对微小湿润的 DNA 晶体 进行高能 X 射线照射的工作。

But the acadmemic culture at the time wasn't very friendly to women,

但当时的学术氛围 对女性并不友好，

and Franklin was isolated from her colleagues.

富兰克林也受到了同事们的排挤，

She clashed with Maurice Wilkins,

她和莫里斯·威尔金斯起了冲突，

a labmate who assumed Franklin had been hired as his assistant.

威尔金斯是她的实验伙伴 但却把她当作助手来对待。

But Franklin kept working,

但富兰克林还是继续努力，

and in 1952, she obtained Photo 51, the most famous x-ray image of DNA.

在 1952 年，她拍到了“照片51”， 这是最著名的 DNA X 射线照片。

Just getting the image took 100 hours,

光是拍摄这张照片 就花了100个小时。

the calculations necessary to analyze it would take a year.

而分析所必须的计算过程 还要花费一年的时间。

Meanwhile, the American biologist James Watson

与此同时，美国生物学家 詹姆斯·沃森

and the British physicist Francis Crick

和英国物理学家 弗朗西斯·克里克

were also working on finding DNA's structure.

也在研究 DNA 的结构。

Without Franklin's knowledge,

在富兰克林不知情的情况下

Wilkins took Photo 51 and showed it to Watson and Crick.

威尔金斯把“照片51” 拿给了沃森和克里克。

Instead of calculating the exact position of every atom,

他们並没有计算 每个原子的精确位置，

they did a quick analysis of Franklin's data

仅是对富兰克林的数据 进行了快速分析，

and used that to build a few potential structures.

从而建立了几个可能的模型。

Eventually, they arrived at the right one.

最终他们找到了正确的结构。

DNA is made of two helicoidal strands,

DNA 是由两根双螺旋线

one opposite the other with bases in the center like rungs of a ladder.

方向相反，中间由 类似梯子横杆的基底连接。

Watson and Crick published their model in April 1953.

1953 年 4 月，沃森和克里克 发表了他们的模型，

Meanwhile, Franklin had finished her calculations,

与此同时，富兰克林 也完成了她的计算，

come to the same conclusion,

也得到了一样的结果，

and submitted her own manuscript.

并提交她的手稿。

The journal published the manuscripts together,

杂志同时发表了两篇论文，

but put Franklin's last,

但把富兰克林的放在后面，

making it look like her experiments just confirmed Watson and Crick's breakthrough

看起来像是她的实验 只是验证了沃森和克里克的重大发现，

instead of inspiring it.

而不是赞扬她的实验。

But Franklin had already stopped working on DNA

但当时富兰克林已经停止了 DNA 方面的工作，

and died of cancer in 1958,

并于 1958 年死于癌症，

never knowing that Watson and Crick had seen her photographs.

直到过世，她仍不晓得 沃森和克里克已经看过她的实验照片。

Watson, Crick, and Wilkins won the Nobel Prize in 1962

沃森，克里克以及威尔金斯

因为他们在 DNA 方面的贡献 在 1962 年获得了诺贝尔奖。

for their work on DNA.

It's often said that Franklin would have been recognized by a Nobel Prize

经常有人说， 如果诺贝尔奖可以追认的话，

if only they could be awarded posthumously.

富兰克林应该也能获得诺贝尔奖，

And, in fact, it's possible she could have won twice.

事实上，她可能会获得两次，

Her work on the structure of viruses led to a Nobel for a colleague in 1982.

她对病毒结构的研究 帮助一位同事获得了 1982 年的诺贝尔奖。

It's time to tell the story of a brave woman who fought sexism in science,

是时候把这位在科学界遭受到性别歧视 的勇敢女性故事讲出来了，

and whose work revolutionized medicine, biology, and agriculture.

她的研究颠覆了医药学， 生物学和农业科学。

It's time to honor Rosalind Elsie Franklin,

让我们来歌颂罗莎琳·埃斯利·富兰克林

the unsung mother of the double helix.

这位被埋没的双螺旋结构之母。