Her Hidden Genius

Her Hidden Genius (2022) is a work of historical fiction by bestselling American author Marie Benedict. Benedict is known for novels that highlight the political, scientific, and cultural contributions of overlooked women in history. Previous titles include Lady Clementine (2020), The Other Einstein (2016), and The Only Woman in the Room (2019). Her Hidden Genius follows physical chemist Rosalind Franklin through her career in post-war London and France as she navigates sexism and discrimination in the scientific community. The novel is largely accurate: Rosalind Franklin played a pioneering role in the burgeoning fields of DNA research and virology, and her work in ­X-ray crystallography was instrumental during the race to map the structure of DNA. The victim of intellectual property theft, her research on DNA has gone largely uncredited. Her Hidden Genius is part of a larger cultural effort to reclaim Rosalind Franklin’s legacy. It offers a fictionalized counter-narrative to the one presented in James Watson’s memoir, The Double Helix, which minimized Franklin’s role in DNA research and mischaracterized her as intractable and difficult to collaborate with. The novel explores The Tension Between Scientific Integrity and Personal Ambition, The Isolation of Women in the Sciences, and Science as Identity.

This guide refers to the 2022 Sourcebooks Landmark edition.

Content Warning: This guide contains discussions of the source text’s depictions sexism and Anti-Semitism.

Plot Summary

In February 1947, Dr. Rosalind Franklin, a 26-year-old physical chemist, arrives in Paris to begin a research position at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques. She is welcomed by senior scientist Monsieur Mathieu and meets her new supervisor, Jacques Mering. She finds the laboratory, or labo, to be a uniquely collegial and egalitarian environment where she quickly befriends her fellow researchers. Under Jacques’s mentorship, Rosalind rapidly masters X-ray crystallography. A deep professional and personal connection grows between them, leading to a clandestine romantic relationship. In January 1949, Rosalind is devastated to learn that Jacques is married and ends their affair. The following summer, she discovers that Jacques began a public liaison with another chercheur, Rachel, almost immediately after their own relationship ended. Realizing that her position at the labo is untenable, she resolves to leave Paris.

In January 1951, Rosalind accepts the Turner and Newall Fellowship at the Biophysics Research Unit at King’s College, London, under Professor J. T. Randall. Randall unexpectedly assigns her to lead the X-ray crystallography study of deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA), framing it as a “race” to discover the secret of life. She meets her doctoral student assistant, Raymond Gosling, but immediately clashes with Maurice Wilkins, the unit’s assistant director. Wilkins, who had been doing preliminary work on DNA, believes Rosalind was hired as his assistant due to a misunderstanding over their roles and resents her taking control of the project.

Rosalind discovers the environment at King’s is hostile and male-dominated, a stark contrast to her experience in Paris. Despite this, she and Ray make a major breakthrough, identifying two distinct forms of DNA: a wet, elongated “B” form and a dry, crystalline “A” form. At a conference at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, Wilkins presents Rosalind’s preliminary data without her permission, revealing her discovery of DNA’s helical structure. She furiously confronts him for sharing incomplete work. The conflict escalates until Randall is forced to intervene, formally assigning the superior DNA samples to Rosalind and giving Wilkins other materials to study, which only deepens Wilkins’s resentment. At a subsequent King’s College colloquium, Rosalind presents her discovery of the A and B forms and states her evidence strongly indicates at least one form of DNA is a helix. Francis Crick, a scientist from Cavendish, a competing lab, is in the audience and is fascinated by Rosalind’s presentation.

Soon after, the King’s team is summoned to the Cavendish, where Crick and his colleague, James Watson, reveal they have built a three-chain model of DNA based on information from the colloquium. Rosalind immediately identifies fatal flaws in their model, particularly its incorrect placement of phosphates and misunderstanding of water content, and dismisses their efforts. Weary of the toxic environment, she secures a new position at Birkbeck College, planning to leave King’s in early 1953. On May 2, 1952, she captures a stunningly clear X-ray image of the B form, which she labels “Photo 51.” Its perfect X-pattern provides definitive proof of a helical structure.

To secure funding, Randall asks Rosalind to contribute her key data and measurements to a confidential report for the Medical Research Council (MRC). Later, Max Perutz, a member of the MRC committee and head of Crick and Watson’s unit, visits her lab and asks to see her images, but she refuses. Randall then announces that Sir Lawrence Bragg, head of the Cavendish, has lifted his ban on DNA research, officially allowing Crick and Watson to begin their own work on DNA. Watson visits Rosalind’s lab uninvited and insults her after she rebuffs his attempts to obtain further information about her work. The next day, Ray tells Rosalind that Watson quoted data from her confidential MRC report, which they suspect came from Perutz. Ray also reveals that he showed Photo 51 to Wilkins, and he suspects Wilkins then showed the photograph to Watson.

On Rosalind’s last day at King’s in March 1953, Wilkins announces that Crick and Watson have solved the structure of DNA: a double helix with specific base pairings. Rosalind realizes they could only have reached this conclusion using her data from the MRC report and Photo 51, confirming her fears that her data was stolen. Furious that his unit had been beaten, Randall arranges for King’s to publish supporting papers alongside Crick and Watson’s main article in the same issue of Nature. Rosalind agrees to write up her findings, ensuring her research receives some credit, but understands the glory will go to Crick and Watson. She chooses to move on to her new position rather than fight a battle she cannot win.

At Birkbeck College, Rosalind thrives in a supportive environment under Professor J. D. Bernal. She leads a new research group studying the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and RNA, forming close and highly productive partnerships with her colleagues, including Don Caspar, a scientist who thinks highly of Rosalind in spite of his ties to Cavendish. Her team flourishes, publishing numerous important papers and securing crucial funding.

In the summer of 1956, Rosalind begins suffering from severe abdominal pain and is diagnosed with ovarian cancer, likely caused by years of radiation exposure. She undergoes two major surgeries and, though her prognosis is poor, returns to work with fierce determination. When her cancer returns in 1957, she undergoes experimental radiotherapy to buy more time for her research. During a conference trip to Switzerland with Don Caspar, they confess their feelings for each other and share a kiss, but she tells him she is dying and cannot begin a relationship.

Rosalind’s health fails rapidly. In April 1958, on her deathbed and heavily sedated, she has visions of being visited by her family, friends, and research team, including a remorseful Jacques Mering. As she dies, she reflects on her life’s work, understanding that while she will not pass on her genes, her discovery of the structure of DNA is her true legacy, one that will live on and replicate through time.