Obiski Rosalind Franklin v Sloveniji

Abstract

Ob 100-letnici rojstva znane kristalografinje Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) članek opisuje njene stike s slovenskimi in hrvaškimi kemiki v letih 1952-1955, predvsem z Dušanom Hadžijem in Katarino Kranjc. Ugotovil sem, da je najbolj znana planinska fotografija Rosalind Franklin nastala v Julijskih Alpah verjetno leta 1952 in ne na Norveškem konec 30-tih let, kot je veljalo doslej. Na Triglav pa se je vzpela julija 1954 ali septembra 1955 in ne leta 1952, kot piše v njeni biografiji.

Abstract

The world-renowned structural chemist and biochemist Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) maintained contacts with Slovenian and Croatian chemists and visited both countries on several occasions. On the basis of biographies and archived correspondence, this article summarises her visits to Slovenia and other parts of the former Yugoslavia. Interestingly, I discovered that the most famous mountaineering photograph of Rosalind Franklin was not taken on her family vacation in Norway in the late 1930s as generally believed, but on the Vršič Pass in Julian Alps, as the vegetation and rock structure, especially the so-called Heathen Maiden in the northwest face of Mount Prisojnik, show. It is likely that the photo was taken by her Slovenian colleague Dušan Hadži, probably in May 1952, so the photo was obviously wrongly labelled in the Franklin family archives. In addition, her mountaineering trip to Mt. Triglav and her stay at Lake Bled could not have happened in 1952 as mentioned in her biography, but rather in 1954 or 1955.