Today we look at Marie Benedict’s latest book, Her Hidden Genius in honor of Women’s History Month! This is the fascinating story of a Rosalind Franklin, a wicked smart scientist in the middle of a boy’s club in 1952. It makes you wonder how many other breakthroughs came from the work of women but the credit went to men? Read more about Dr. Franklin and her story below as well as my review.
About Her Hidden Genius
She changed the world with her discovery. Three men took the credit.
Rosalind Franklin has always been an outsider—brilliant, but different. Whether working at the laboratory she adored in Paris or toiling at a university in London, she feels closest to the science, those unchanging laws of physics and chemistry that guide her experiments. When she is assigned to work on DNA, she believes she can unearth its secrets.
Rosalind knows if she just takes one more X-ray picture—one more after thousands—she can unlock the building blocks of life. Never again will she have to listen to her colleagues complain about her, especially Maurice Wilkins who’d rather conspire about genetics with James Watson and Francis Crick than work alongside her.
Then it finally happens—the double helix structure of DNA reveals itself to her with perfect clarity. But what unfolds next, Rosalind could have never predicted.
Marie Benedict’s powerful new novel shines a light on a woman who sacrificed her life to discover the nature of our very DNA, a woman whose world-changing contributions were hidden by the men around her but whose relentless drive advanced our understanding of humankind.
My Review
Rosalyn Franklin is a genius. She’s also a woman working in a man’s world in the 1950s in Paris and in London. This true story follows her as she out-thinks every man around her but never seems to get the recognition she deserves. A pure scientist, she doesn’t always know how to handle interpersonal relationships or read the clues of the people around her. When she is working in London this fault is particularly bad, causing her to have to re-evaluate her career goals as she works on the structure of DNA. I enjoyed learning about this woman and was cheering her on throughout the entire book. Great read.
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