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- 80 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
Photograph 51
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About This Book
'The instant I saw the photograph my mouth fell open and my pulse began to race' Does Rosalind Franklin know how precious her photograph is? In the race to unlock the secret of life it could be the one to hold the key. With rival scientists looking everywhere for the answer, who will be first to see it and more importantly, understand it? Anna Ziegler's extraordinary play looks at the woman who cracked DNA and asks what is sacrificed in the pursuit of science, love and a place in history. Nicole Kidman made her much anticipated return to the London stage in the role of Rosalind Franklin, the woman who discovered the secret to Life, in the UK premiĆØre of Anna Ziegler's award-winning play.
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(The Lights rise on ROSALIND.)
ROSALIND: This is what it was like. We made the invisible visible. We could see atoms, not only see themāmanipulate them, move them around. We were so powerful. Our instruments felt like extensions of our own bodies. We could see everything, really see itāexcept, sometimes, what was right in front of us.
When I was a child I used to draw shapes. Shapes overlapping, like endless Venn diagrams. My parents said, āRosalind, maybe you should draw people? Donāt you want to draw our family? Our little dog?ā I didnāt. I drew patterns of the tiniest repeating structures. In my mind were patterns of the tiniest repeating structures.
WILKINS: It was a particularly cold winter in London. January 1951.
ROSALIND: And when I first got to use my fatherās camera, I went outside and found four leaves. I arranged them carefully, on the curb. But the photograph I took was not of leaves. You see, nothing is ever just one thing. This was the world, a map of rivers and mountain ranges in endless repetition. And when I told my father I wanted to become a scientist, he said, āAh. I see.āā¦Then he said āNo.ā
WILKINS: And at the same time, in Parisā
WATSON: Not again, Wilkins. Really?
WILKINS: In Paris, Rosalind Franklin was saying her goodbyes.
ROSALIND: (As though addressing a large group of peopleāher colleagues in Paris; her French is perfect.)
Oh, vous me flattez plus que je ne mƩrite.
(She laughs.)
But I do appreciate it. I will so miss you all, and the work weāve done here together. Never have I encountered such fastidiousness coupled with such, yes Iāll say it, joy. I will miss it. And the breadā¦And the wineā¦And oh the cheese! But mostly I will miss you.
(She smiles, a twinkle in her eye, but then, after a moment, puts her hair in a bun.)
CRICK: (To the audience.) She didnāt want to leave the Laboratoire Central, but sheād just won a fellowship at Kingās College London and one didnāt turn down a job at Kingāsāespecially since there was a chance sheād get to work in the field of geneticsā
CASPAR: A field in which the possibilities wereā¦well, they were endless. In which the promise of personal and professional fulfillment was tangible.
GOSLING: So she wrote aā¦polite letter to Dr. Wilkins requesting the instruments sheād require:
ROSALIND: (Writing the letter, all formality.) I require an X-ray generating tube. And a camera specially made so that the temperature inside it can be carefully controlled. Otherwise, the solution will change during its exposure, and Dr. Wilkins you know as well as I do that that just wonāt do. Finally, if at all possible, Iād like to know when this order will be placed so that, if need be, I can request a few minor modifications. Yours sincerely, Dr. Rosalind Franklin.
WILKINS: Dear Miss Franklin, you are ever soā¦cordial. But I must warn youāwe at Kingās are very serious. So serious, in fact, and intent on being at āthe cutting edgeā as they say, that we will be moving your research into another area entirely.
(WILKINS and ROSALIND at Kingās together.)
ROSALIND: I beg your pardon?
WILKINS: Yes, instead of proteins you will be working on deciphering the structure of DNA.
ROSALIND: Is that so.
WILKINS: You see, I recently took X-ray photos of a particular sample of DNA that came out remarkably well, showing that it is unmistakably crystalline in shape. Therefore it now seems evident that Kingās needs to push forward in this endeavor, in determining, through crystallography, at which you are quite expertā
ROSALIND: Thank you. I am.
WILKINS: Yes. No one will argue with that. (Beat.) At any rate, we need to push forward in determining why it is that in the chromosome the numbers of purines and pyrimidines come in pairs. So that we can then determine how replication works. So that we can then determineā
ROSALIND: I know what youāre talking about.
WILKINS: Yes, yes I suppose you do. Then Iāll leap straight to the point. You will be assisting me in my study of the Signer DNA from Switzerland. Everyone wanted it and yet somehow Randall got it. The old rogue. I donāt know how he did itā¦
ROSALIND: I donāt think I heard you correctly.
WILKINS: You did! We have the Signer stock. Quite a coup really. When you think about it.
ROSALIND: But did you say Iād be assisting you?
WILKINS: Yes!ā¦And my doctoral student, Ray Gosling, will assist you.
GOSLING: Hello!
(He puts out his hand and ROSALIND ignores it.)
ROSALIND: Butā¦Randall told me Iād be heading up the study. That Iād be in charge of my own work here. Sure...
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half-title Page
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Characters
- Chapters