The English Chemist
The Story of Rosalind Franklin: A Novel
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
The controversial story of one of the twentieth century’s most famed scientists, Rosalind Franklin, who discovered the two-chain helical structure of DNA in 1952— but was then cheated out of the Nobel Prize.
Rosalind Franklin knows that to be a woman in a man’s world is to be invisible. In the 1950s, science is a gentleman’s profession and in the years after WWII there are plenty of scientists who want to keep it that way.
After being segregated at Cambridge, then ignored and criticized in the workplace, she has no intention of being seen as a second-class scientist and throws everything into proving her worth. But despite her success in unlocking the very secret of life, the ultimate glory is claimed by the men she left in her wake.
Inspired by the true story of a woman so many tried to silence, The English Chemist is a tale of hope and perseverance, love and betrayal.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Mills debuts with an insightful look at the personal and professional struggles of Dr. Rosalind Franklin (1920–1958), whose contributions to the study of DNA went uncelebrated during her lifetime. In 1951, Rosalind works as a researcher at King's College, London, studying the makeup of DNA. Using X-ray technology, she discovers and takes photographs of DNA's double helix structure, but Dr. Maurice Wilkins, a fellow researcher, takes the credit. Refusing to be discouraged, Rosalind takes another research position in a lab at the University of London, where she's denied a pay raise because she is not a man with a family to support. Yet Rosalind refuses to succumb to the pressure to marry and give up her work. Her resilience is again tested by severe abdominal pain and a diagnosis of ovarian cancer, which results in a hysterectomy. Mills dramatizes Rosalind's scientific prowess in intricate details and delivers insightful character work, exploring how Rosalind's dedication to her research led to her solitary life. It's a worthy companion to Marie Benedict's Her Hidden Genius.
