Rosalind Franklin’s discovery of the X-ray diffraction images of DNA was one of the most important contributions to understanding DNA in history. Her work helped Watson and Crick build an accurate model of the molecule, which ultimately led to their discovery that it had a regular, repeating structure. This helped them determine its now-famous double helix shape.
Her work also suggested that DNA might be made up of two strands, which was a key insight for Watson and Crick. Her work was essential in showing that DNA was a viable model for the genetic material.
Watson and Crick would not have been able to build their model without Franklin’s data. It was her contributions—aided by many others—that made their discovery possible. Franklin’s contributions were largely unrecognized at the time, due in part to her untimely death. However, her work has since been widely recognized as crucial to the discovery of the structure of DNA.
The discovery of the double helix is one of the most important achievements in the history of science; it changed our understanding of genetics forever and sparked a revolution in biochemistry and medicine that continues today! Rosalind Franklin’s discovery played an integral role in making this discovery possible
