What we talk about when we talk about the unbearable lightness of boring titles
Joe Brown
@j0ebr0wn.bsky.social
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Professor, UNC Department of Environmental Sciences & Engineering. Director, UNC Water Institute. Environmental health microbiology, pathogen transmission, environmental epidemiology, global health engineering. Art. tarheels.live/brown
![An obituary for Rosalind Franklin, written by J.D. Bernal.
Excerpt:
Dr. Rosalind E. Franklin
THE news of the death of Rosalind Franklin on April 16 [1958] came as a shock to many workers in the field of biochemistry and virus studies. It is a special tragedy when a brilliant research worker is cut off at the height of her powers and when exciting new discoveries are expected from her.
...
As a scientist Miss Franklin was distinguished by extreme clarity and perfection in everything she undertook. Her photographs are among the most beautiful X-ray photographs of any substance ever taken. Their excellence was the fruit of extreme care in preparation and mounting of the specimens as well as in the taking of the photographs. She did nearly all this work with her own hands. At the same time, she proved to be an admirable director of a research team and inspired those who worked with her to reach the same high standard. Her devotion to research showed itself at its finest in the last months of her life. Although stricken with an illness which she knew would be fatal, she continued to work right up to the end. Her early death is a great loss to science.
J. D. BERNAL](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:lw3xw6b4qbkfbfw6as65kgbb/bafkreibs5lr7ot7qqbkz2bs6pim4drl3eic5hz35lq4c5otmnimxd2hy4u)
