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Franklin's Close, Affluent Upbringing
- Rosalind Franklin grew up in a very close, loving, and affluent Anglo-Jewish family in London.
- She maintained deep family bonds and was sensitive to anti-Semitism throughout her life.
Barriers for Women at Cambridge
- Studying science as a woman at Cambridge in the late 1930s was extremely unusual and often met with institutional barriers.
- Women could not graduate or belong officially to the university, highlighting systemic gender discrimination.
Pioneering Research into Coal
- Franklin's early research focused on coal's porous structure and its varying properties under heat.
- She pioneered using gases like helium to probe coal density, explaining why some coals graphitize and others do not.