• Question: Why did only men get the nobel prize for dna i know a woman helped them?

    Asked by to Del, Catherine, John, Mo Rassul on 19 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Catherine Mansfield

      Catherine Mansfield answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      You are right, Roaslind Franklin did help to discover the structure of DNA along with Watson and Crick. However she had died by the time the nobel prize was awarded, and nobel prizes can only be given to living people.

    • Photo: John Foster

      John Foster answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      This is a very good question. You are correct that a woman scientist helped with the discovery of the DNA double helix. Her name was Roslaind Franklin and she was using a technique involving Xrays to look at the structure of DNA. Her data was really important for Waston and Crick to describe the DNA double helix structure. Watson and Crick were however the first to publish their results in a scientific journal, which is a key part of research. This doesn’t mean that Franklin and her lab weren’t the first to discover it, they just waited to gather more evidence to publish it.

      It often takes years for a discovery to be shown to be worthy of a Novel prize. People who receive the Nobel prize must be alive when they are nominated, and Rosalin Franklin sadly died of cancer before the prize for DNA was decided in 1962. It is sad that her contribution to the discovery of DNA was not well known until long after her death.

Comments