Elizabeth Blackburn's adolescence was similar to that of other girls growing up in the 1960s. He followed current fashion trends, listened to the Beatles and had brothers who he argued with but also admired. Furthermore, she was also a model student who consistently achieved high grades in academics. As the fifth of seven children, her siblings considered her the most motivated of the group; worry less about pleasing others and more about independent success. Although Blackburn's family background is primarily English, she was born in Hobart, Tasmania, three years after the conclusion of the Second World War. His father's family traveled to Austrailia from northern England in 1882. His great-grandfather, the Reverend Thomas Blackburn, was an Anglican minister who became obsessed with entomology after reading Charles Darwin's 1859 publication, Origin of the Species . After cataloging many species in Hawaii, Thomas Blackburn moved to Australia to further his studies. Elizabeth's father, Harold Blackburn, inherited his father's scientific disposition and earned a medical degree from the University of Adelaide. Likewise, Blackburn's maternal side of the family shared an obsession with science and did not shy away from travel. Blackburn's maternal great-grandfather, Robert Logan Jack, was a geologist who explored minerals throughout China until 1904, when the Boxer Rebellion threatened both his and his son's safety. His son, Blackburn's grandfather, later wrote about his travels and perpetuated his father's legacy, becoming a geologist himself. Although not through geology, Blackburn's mother, Marcia Constance, pursued a scientific career earning a medical degree from the University of Melbourne during the Second World War... halfway through the article... such a discovery without conducting any own experimental work. Unfortunately, at that time the perception of women in science had not progressed as much as science. As a result, Blackburn was forced to confront the problem she had begrudgingly acknowledged. Her solution was what she called protective coloring. Common social behaviors and feminine confidence had to be cast aside and replaced with more calculated actions and responses for the majority of her male colleagues to accept her without feeling threatened or seeking romantic companionship. Of course, by adopting this method he was still able to Works Cited Brady, Catherine. Elizabeth Blackburn and the story of telomeres: deciphering the ends of DNA. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2007. Print."Elizabeth H. Blackburn - Biographical." Elizabeth H. Blackburn - Biographical. Nobel Media AB, 2014. Web.