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It's important to realize that "Photograph 51" wasn't "Franklin's" -- it was taken by Raymond Gosling, a grad student mentored by Franklin and Maurice Wilkins.

It's important to realize that "Photograph 51" wasn't "Franklin's" -- it was taken by Raymond Gosling, a grad student mentored by Franklin and Maurice Wilkins. What happened was that Wilkins chose to share the data with Watson and Crick. Yes, he maybe should have consulted with Franklin first (and certainly with Gosling, whose opinion nobody seems to care about). In any case, while Franklin certainly didn't get along with Watson, she was close friends with Crick and his wife Odile up to her death and in fact lived with the Cricks when she was undergoing treatment for her cancer [2]. This would be hard to square with the idea that she thought Crick had "stolen" "her" data, [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Gosling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Gosling [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Mad_Pursuit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Mad_Pursuit

pazimzadeh 1y ago
yeah, generally the grad students are the ones performing experiments and the mentors are writing grants and helping to interpret data
prmph 1y ago
Watson was the main man, that's why we say "Watson and Crick" and not "Crick and Watson". Why did she not get along with Watson, I wonder?
- jhbadger 1y ago
  I'm not so sure about that -- Crick had a much more productive scientific career post structure than did Watson (who went into administration instead). He also had the mathematical skills needed for interpreting crystallography data that Watson lacked (Crick had studied physics as an undergraduate while Watson had studied zoology). As for why Franklin and Watson didn't get along, you can get some idea from Watson's own writings -- Watson liked to talk and joke around and Franklin wasn't interested in that sort of thing, at least not during work hours.
  - prmph 1y ago
    > Crick had a much more productive scientific career post structure than did Watson... But we are not talking their later work. The issue under discussion is their DNA structure work, and for that Watson wa the main one in their collaboration. > Watson liked to talk and joke around ... This euphemistically dances around the issue.

pazimzadeh 1y ago

yeah, generally the grad students are the ones performing experiments and the mentors are writing grants and helping to interpret data

prmph 1y ago

Watson was the main man, that's why we say "Watson and Crick" and not "Crick and Watson". Why did she not get along with Watson, I wonder?

jhbadger 1y ago
I'm not so sure about that -- Crick had a much more productive scientific career post structure than did Watson (who went into administration instead). He also had the mathematical skills needed for interpreting crystallography data that Watson lacked (Crick had studied physics as an undergraduate while Watson had studied zoology). As for why Franklin and Watson didn't get along, you can get some idea from Watson's own writings -- Watson liked to talk and joke around and Franklin wasn't interested in that sort of thing, at least not during work hours.
- prmph 1y ago
  > Crick had a much more productive scientific career post structure than did Watson... But we are not talking their later work. The issue under discussion is their DNA structure work, and for that Watson wa the main one in their collaboration. > Watson liked to talk and joke around ... This euphemistically dances around the issue.