Little People, Big Dreams: Rosalind Franklin - Isabel Sanchez Vegara
This little biography of Rosalind Franklin tells the inspiring tale of the scientist who was crucial to the discovery of the double helix in DNA.
Little Rosalind was born in London to a Jewish family who valued education and public service, and as she grew up her huge intellect was drawn to science. Having studied physics and chemistry at Cambridge University, Rosalind moved to Paris to perfect her life’s work in X-ray crystallography. She then moved back to King’s College London, where she would work on finding the structure of DNA with Maurice Wilkins.
It was Rosalind’s 'photo 51' that was used by Wilkins to create the first ever double helix DNA model with Francis Crick, but he did not credit for her work due to a falling out, and her work went unacknowledged until after her death. However, today she is revered as the forgotten heroine of the study of how DNA works, and the 'Sylvia Plath of molecular biology'.
The Little People, Big Dreams books series portrays the inspiring lives of artists, designers, activists and scientists in a super-accessible way with sweet illustrations and by focusing on when they started out as children with a dream. Each book has a biographical timeline with historical photographs and extra facts, too.