Photo 51 is the nickname given to an X-ray diffraction image of DNA taken by Rosalind Franklin in 1952[1] that was critical evidence[2] in identifying the structure of DNA.[3] The photo was taken by Franklin while working at King's College London in Sir John Randall's group.
James D. Watson was shown the photo by Maurice Wilkins, who had been given it with Franklin's apparent prior approval by Raymond Gosling. With the help of Francis Crick, he used it to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. It was the critical evidence[4] that led to the confirmation of the postulated double helical structure of DNA, published during 1953 in a series of five articles in the journal Nature.[5] Franklin and Raymond Gosling's own publication in the same issue of Nature was the first publication of this more clarified X-ray image of DNA.[6]
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