Rosalind Franklin and DNA Rosalind Franklin and DNA Rosalind Franklin and DNA is a biography of an English chemist Rosalind Franklin (1920–1958) written by her American friend Anne Sayre in 1975. Franklin was a physical chemist who made pivotal research in the discovery of the structure of DNA, known as "the most important discovery" in biology. DNA itself had become "life's most famous molecule". While working at the King's College London in 1951, she discovered two types of DNA called A-DNA and B-DNA. Her X-ray images of DNA indicated helical structure. Her X-ray image of B-DNA (called Photo 51) taken in 1952 became the
Rosalind Franklin and DNA and B forms of DNA were composed of two helical chains. By then, James Watson and Francis Crick at the Cambridge University had built a correct double helical model of DNA, based on her experimental data. The discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953 is regarded as "the greatest and most important scientific discovery of the 20th Century". Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 for the discovery. This discovery laid the foundation for modern biology, including medical and molecular researches. The discoverers earned a lasting worldwide fame. But