Rosalind Franklin was born on July 25 in London, England, the daughter of an affluent Jewish family. At the age of 15, Franklin determined she would become a scientist--a daunting aspiration for a young girl in what was then a decidedly male-dominated field. Franklin's most famous work--done between 1951 and 1953--involved the use of a new invention known as x-ray crystallography. Using this technology, she produced the first clear photos of a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule. These photographs ultimately led to the identification of DNA's double helix structure. She died of ovarian cancer at the age of 37.

As a youth, Franklin attended St. Paul's Girls' School, one of the few girls' schools in London at that time which taught chemistry and physics. Her father adamantly opposed her attending university, insisting she go into social work. However, she ultimately gained his approval to attend Newnham College at Cambridge University. She obtained a...