“Her collaborator” is a strong way to describe Franklin’s relationship with Wilkins. They did not like each other and were even pitted against one another by their manager. And sure, Franklin died before the discovery was nominated for the Nobel but there’s the important fact that Watson and Crick had the structure…

I’m currently chatting with an ex-Broad Inst pal of mine about this, and he says the same - but I feel like, the upcoming patent battle would be more likely to be settled with greater amicability and with less historical outwriting if all contestant parties were male.

UGH yes. I got completely left out of a paper that made the New England Journal of Medicine. Several years, NBD, right?

Nathaniel Comfort described Landers’ account as an instance of what historian Herbert Butterfield called “whig history.” In other words: “It rationalizes the status quo, wins the allegiance of the establishment, justifies the dominance of those in power.