Today in Chemistry History – Rosalind Franklin and the structure of DNA

Rosalind Franklin was born on this day in 1920. Her contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were key; she took photos of DNA’s structure using X-ray crystallography, and it was these photos that informed the work of Watson and Crick’s model of DNA’s structure. Sadly her contributions were not fully recognised until after her death, and she did not share in the award of the Nobel Prize for the discovery of DNA’s structure as the prize is not awarded posthumously.

This graphic takes a quick look at the structure of DNA, and how Franklin’s photos helped inform it. There’s more detail on the structure in this graphic devoted to the topic.

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