Frankly Revisiting Franklin – How a 60-Year-Old Case Might Help Prevent Future Injustices

Abstract

The role of Rosalind Franklin, chemist and X-ray crystallographer, in one of the most important discoveries of the 20th century – the discovery of the DNA helical structure – has long been debated. Although numerous protagonists have provided different versions of the events preceding Watson and Crick’s famous paper in journal Nature in April 1953, it is nevertheless evident that a serious breach of ethical research conduct was committed. By analysing the controversy of Franklin’s deserved but missed Nobel Prize, the authors of the present paper suggest that the Nobel Prize nomination and awarding procedure might be revised to avoid Franklin-like injustices in the future. According to the authors, this might be achieved by returning to Alfred Nobel’s original idea of awarding the prize “to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind” and/or by allowing a deceased person to be both nominated and awarded.