Rosalind Franklin is an unsung historical character who deserves the “Hamilton” theme. Frank-lin lived in a time when it was rare for a woman to have a job, let alone one as highly revered as a scientist. She used the newest x-ray crystallography technology to capture an early image of DNA’s double helical structure. This was a revolutionary discovery that solved one of the most important biological mysteries, but the credit was stolen from her by three men she worked with, James Watson, Maurice Wilkins, and Francis Crick. These men discovered her image and used it to build a model that won them the Nobel Prize of Physiology or Medicine in 1962. Franklin died in 1958 but the men did not give Franklin any credit for her ground breaking research.
