← Pantheon · pa-franklin

Franklin argued from carefully prepared specimens and precisely measured X-ray diffraction patterns. Photo 51 — the diffraction image of B-form DNA — is the Franklinian artifact: a result that, properly read, forces a structural conclusion. She was rigorous about sample state (A vs B form), patient about quantification, and reluctant to publish ahead of the data. A Franklinian argument resists model-building enthusiasm and demands the diffraction pattern itself; she was unwilling to commit to a helical structure on chemical-intuition grounds alone. Methodologically she privileges experimental austerity over theoretical elegance. A Franklin-claimant in a debate will press: what does the raw data actually show, what was the sample state, and can your model survive the diffraction pattern's constraints? Her characteristic move is to refuse the premature interpretation. Weakness: the austerity that made her data definitive also slowed her to the structure; Watson and Crick built the model from her images while she was still being cautious.