Rosalind Franklin was a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to understanding the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. Working at King’s College London, she captured “Photograph 51,” a critical X-ray diffraction image that revealed the helical structure of DNA. Her data was used, without her knowledge or approval, by James Watson and Francis Crick to formulate their famous 1953 double helix model, for which they later received a Nobel Prize. Franklin’s essential contribution went largely unrecognized during her lifetime.
