The Watson-Crick DNA Model
Wilkins had been in contact with James Watson and Francis Crick. He showed them the x-ray data that Franklin had obtained, which confirmed the 3-D structure that they had theorized for DNA. Her photograph of a fiber of DNA (famously known as "Photo 51") was critical to Watson and Crick's discovery of the double helix. Watson and Crick had been working on a theoretical model and used an image from one of Franklin's x-ray diffraction photos and a summary of her unpublished research submitted to the Medical Research Council. No one had ever told Franklin that they had used her materials, and they did not directly acknowledge their debt to her work. Watson and Crick ultimately published their proposed structure of DNA in March, 1953. It had been recognized later by Francis Crick that Franklin's contribution was critical, but during her life her contribution had never been acknowledged.
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