July 25, 1920 - Birth of Rosalind Franklin "the woman who X-rayed life"

Using X-ray diffraction techniques, this woman – born in the cinematographic Notting Hill neighborhood in London – managed to reveal the double helix structure of the molecule.

Born into an eminent English Jewish family, she was educated in private schools where she excelled in all subjects and sports.

At the age of 18, she was accepted to the University of Cambridge (UK) where she graduated in biophysics at the age of 21. Although she was awarded a scholarship, she decided to donate it to World War II refugee students.

After winning a research fellowship at Cambridge and doing her postdoc on the use of coal, in 1947 she traveled to Paris as a postdoctoral researcher, where she became an expert X-ray crystallographer.

But it wasn't until 1953, after joining King's College London, when Rosalind took the famous 51 photograph, that she revealed to the world the helical structure of DNA.

In April of that same year, the Nature magazine published the article "Molecular structure of nucleic acids". However, the macho society turned its back on her: his authorship was not recognized and she was relegated to a mere technical assistant.

She died at the age of 37, on April 16, 1958, a victim of ovarian cancer.