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But Dr. Perutz who showed Dr. Franklin’s unpublished data is “a bit iffy,” she said. (In 1969, Dr. Perutz wrote that the report was not confidential but that he had to ask permission to share it “as a matter of courtesy.”)
However, other scientists and historians say they are confused by the arguments made in Nature’s essay. Helen Berman, a structural biologist at Rutgers University, called them “weird”. From Dr. Franklin, he said, “If they were members of the same, I don’t know if they were considered very good.”
Dr. Franklin and Dr. Wilkins each published their own results in the same issue of Nature that included Dr. Watson and Dr. Crick reports, as part of a package of papers. But Dr. Berman wondered why scientists didn’t collaborate on a single paper with co-authors. And some scholars said they thought the new essay minimized the Cambridge team’s mistakes.
Dr. Comfort said that he and Dr. Cobb were not “trying to exonerate” Dr. Watson and Dr. Crick, who said “slow to fully acknowledge” the contribution of Dr. Franklin’s. Dr. Cobb said that Cambridge scientists should have told Dr. Franklin that they were using her data. “He’s not fun,” he said. “He didn’t open up like he wanted.” But, he added, it wasn’t a “thief.”
There is no evidence that Dr. Franklin was saddened by the incident, historians say, and he became friendly with the Cambridge duo in the last years of his brief life. “As far as I can tell, there are no bad feelings,” said Dr. Oshinksy.
This may change if Dr. Franklin lived long enough to read “The Double Helix,” some scholars say. “‘The Double Helix’ is just terrifying,” said Dr. Garman. “It gives a very slanted look, and it doesn’t compliment the pieces they use.”
Dr. Franklin’s early death also meant he missed out on the Nobel prize, but the Nobel Assembly could find other ways to recognize his contributions, said Nils Hansson, a medical historian at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, in Germany. Dr. Watson and Dr. Crick did not mention him when he accepted the award, Dr. Hansson noted, although Dr. Wilkins, who also received the prize.
“He really got a raw deal,” said Dr. Howard Markel, a physician and medical historian at the University of Michigan and author of “The Secret of Life,” a book about the discovery of the double helix. “Everyone likes to receive the credit they deserve for their work. Everyone should care enough about their peers to ensure fair play.
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