Rosalind Franklin began her work as soon as possible and continued working until she was truly physically unable to. In 1956, age 36, Franklin discovered that she had ovarian cancer (Biography “Rosalind Franklin”). How she came to develop this cancer is debated, whether is was due to the radiation of working with x-ray crystallography (Bagley) or possibly that it was the wicked irony of the gene being in her own DNA due to the fact that Ashkenazi Jews have a “hereditary predisposition to ovarian cancer” (Famous Scientists “Rosalind Franklin”). Beginning treatment, Franklin went through three different surgeries as well as participating in experimental chemo treatment and yet, despite all of that, she continued working (Biography “Rosalind
