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Right Answers Mostly

The Forgotten Genius in the Boys Lab

Right Answers Mostly

Claire Donald & Tess Bellomo

Society & Culture, History, Tv & Film

4.6764 Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week we’re diving into the story of Rosalind Franklin, the brilliant chemist whose work literally shaped our understanding of life itself… and who history almost forgot. Before “girlboss” was even a word, Rosalind was out here breaking barriers at Cambridge, fighting for lab space, and producing the famous “Photo 51” that helped unlock the double helix, only to have her male colleagues take the glory. We talk about what it meant to be a woman in science in the 1950s, how her confidence and precision were often mistaken for “difficult,” and why her legacy feels so hauntingly familiar in a world that still loves to under credit women. Created and produced by Tess Bellomo & Claire Donald For more about RAM, go here! Sign up for our premium subscription for $7.99/month here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

The

0:07.0

The Welcome back to write answers mostly, a podcast on what you didn't learn in history class, but you really wanted to. My name is Tess Falomo. And my name is Claire Donald. Claire, I have a question for you. I have a question for you.

0:38.0

And I just want to hear like what, what you would do in the situation.

0:40.8

And Rammies, please follow along.

0:42.3

Imagine discovering the secret of life and then having your male coworkers publish it first.

0:48.5

Is that the question?

0:49.7

That's the question.

0:51.0

Just to get us all fired up.

0:52.7

I think I would like to say um i have a list of names and

0:56.9

yours is in red underline and that's the perfect answer that's really all that you need to say

1:01.7

so rames today that is why we're going to be talking about rosalind franklin claire do you know anything

1:07.2

about this woman no um as you guys, I'm not a big science and math

1:12.1

girly. Like I like to lean into the history and literature, which is why we're here. But I'm

1:15.9

really excited to know more about her. Claire, let's start with the structure of DNA.

1:22.8

Don't worry. This is not going to be a science podcast, but we are going to be talking about some chemistry,

1:28.7

some physics along the way. So we know the DNA is basically the blueprint for all living things,

1:33.7

right? It's like how you have your blonde hair, or I guess. No, that's not true. I have my blonde hair

1:38.7

from the bottle. It's how you have your brunette hair, your hazel eyes. It's how we, you know, genetics, DNA, all of that is just like how we are formed. And it was, quote, discovered by three men because that's the story that we've all heard. It were these assholes, Washington, Rick and Wilkins. So remember those names. They were Nobel Prize winners.

2:02.6

You know, they were like the big brains and like the guys that changed everything.

2:06.3

Were they American?

2:07.8

No, they were British.

2:08.9

Okay.

...

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