Her Hidden Genius

December 14, 1954

London, England

Rosalind meets Aaron Klug, another scientist who is moving into the office next to hers. They connect over their shared Jewish background and chat about their families and work histories. Rosalind tells Aaron about a recent trip she took to the United States during which she toured several research facilities. She omits that she ran into James Watson at Woods Hole, one of the labs she visited. Watson greeted her with unusual friendliness and, Rosalind thought, contrition. He explained that he thought Rosalind had been treated unfairly during the DNA race and offered to share his own research on TMV, the virus that she is currently studying. Stunned, she said thank you and tried to remain civil.

Aaron then asks her about her work, and she explains that viruses like TMV replicate themselves by inserting their own material into various cells. She shows Aaron her TMV X-ray images, and he becomes visibly excited. He asks if she would like a research partner.

August 4, 1955

London, England

More than a year has passed. Rosalind now heads a team that includes Aaron Klug and assistants John Finch and Kenneth Holmes, and they have all been hard at work on their project. They are a cohesive team and communicate bluntly but respectfully. Rosalind is grateful to be back in a collegial lab, and she is even willing to take criticism from her team members when it is warranted. They are currently attempting to create a physical model of TMV. Ken proposes using bicycle handlebar grips to represent the repeating protein subunits, and everyone agrees that his idea is brilliant.

Trouble, however, is on the horizon. Norman Pirie, who is a renowned virologist, has taken objection to the group’s findings. He has many connections, and he has filed an objection to the group’s continued funding. Without their grant, they will be unable to continue working. Rosalind has no idea what to do.

October 14, 1955, and March 2, 1956

London, England

American biophysicist Don Caspar joins the team, sent by James Watson. Caspar did early, important work on TMV and Rosalind is excited to have his assistance, even though he is friends with Watson. Watson has continued to try to support Rosalind from afar, and she is now sure that he feels bad about having stolen her research during the race to map DNA’s structure.

Rosalind and her research group continue to collaborate, and Rosalind is happy that they have also become friends. They share with her that she is seen as too “posh” by many and that her anti-communist politics further alienate her from many in the scientific community. Rosalind is not shocked by any of this, but she is struck by how much more attention people pay to her than she does to them.

Because she and the group have become so close, Rosalind finally feels comfortable enough to confide in them about the funding crisis. She explains that Pirie is trying to cancel their grant. She would be better equipped to fight the funding cut if she were appointed the project’s principal investigator, but because she is a woman she cannot be given that title. Don proposes a solution: Apply for support from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), which often funds foreign projects.

August 30, 1956

London, England

Rosalind attends a symphony with her parents. Rosalind is exhausted and does not want to attend, but her sister is the fundraising chair of the orchestra’s board. Rosalind does not share her family’s interest in philanthropic work, but she does care about them and does her best to remain a dutiful daughter. Her mother notes that Rosalind looks bloated, and she feels the same sharp pain in her abdomen that has been bothering her for weeks. The next day at a required checkup for radiation workers, she reports her symptoms to the physician. He examines her, finds a mass in her abdomen, and tells her to see a specialist immediately, marking her file “Urgent.”

On September 4, 1956

London, England

Rosalind wakes in a hospital after surgery to remove the abdominal mass. Later, she overhears a surgeon in the corridor telling her family he removed two large tumors from her ovaries and noting a possible connection to radiation exposure. As her mother and aunt weep, the surgeon confirms that Rosalind has cancer.

October 24, 1956

The Fenlands, England

Rosalind recuperates at a cottage loaned to her by Francis Crick and his wife. Her friend, Anne Sayre, accompanies her. Rosalind tells Anne that doctors found and removed ovarian cancer but that she believes it is now gone. She insists she is on the mend and plans to return to the lab as soon as possible.

January 7 and April 25, 1957

London, England

Rosalind returns to Birkbeck against her family’s protests. She is pleased to see how much progress the team has made and notes with pleasure its discoveries about similarities between polio and plant viruses. She and Aaron joke as they discuss the work completed in her absence, and she is also happy to be back among such genial, supportive scientists.

On April 25, she receives two letters: She opens the one from the Agricultural Research Council first. They have renewed her grant, but denied her request for the title of principal scientific investigator. She is angry about the obvious sexism responsible for the denial, but happy about the funding. The next letter, from the Medical Research Council, is an offer to provide funding from her assistants. Oddly, it is none other than Lawrence Bragg, from the Cavendish labs, who recommended her project for consideration. Rosalind is sure that, like Crick and Watson, he feels guilty over her mistreatment on the DNA project. As she contemplates Bragg’s role in her research award, she doubles over from pain in her abdomen and collapses, hemorrhaging. She runs as quickly as she can down the street to the hospital.

August 12, 1957

Geneva, Switzerland

The NIH also agrees to provide Rosalind’s project with funding, and the team now has more than enough money to continue its work. Rosalind learns that she has new cancerous masses and that her illness is terminal. The doctors encourage her to find solace in religion, but Rosalind instead attempts to use her scientific knowledge to shape the course of her treatment. She argues in favor of a radiation treatment that her doctors worry will cause unpleasant side effects.

She also returns to work and, with Don, attends a conference in Geneva. When the two are alone, Don kisses Rosalind. She kisses him back, but when he admits that he’s long harbored feelings for her, she reveals that she is dying. Don suggests Rosalind help the doctors to find a new treatment path, and she explains that she has tried an experimental therapy, but that it will not be enough to save her life.

April 16, 1958

London, England

At the Royal Marsden Hospital, Rosalind wakes in a haze. She sees all of her friends and colleagues gathered around her bedside. Everyone is teary-eyed, and it is evident that they know the end is in sight. Then, not sure if she is hallucinating because of the painkillers or if they are really there, she sees her family members. Her father tells her that he is proud of her and that he has finally realized the importance of her scientific work. She then has a vision that she is climbing a mountain whose path resolves into the X-ray pattern of the DNA double helix. Accepting this discovery as her legacy, she dies.