The DNA Story: Discovery & Injustice

Part 1: The Mystery Begins

1869: The Discovery

Friedrich Miescher isolates "Nuclein" from the cell nucleus. For decades, it remains a mystery.

1950s: The Golden Rule

Erwin Chargaff discovers the ratio: Adenine = Thymine (A=T) and Guanine = Cytosine (G=C). This is the key mathematical clue.

Part 2: The Evidence

King's College, London

Rosalind Franklin arrives. She is a master of X-ray crystallography, seeking the truth in the fibers.

Photo 51

She captures the legendary image. The "X" pattern shouts HELIX. It is the clearest evidence of DNA's structure ever seen.

Part 3: The Catalyst

The Unauthorized Reveal

Without Franklin's permission, Wilkins shows Photo 51 to James Watson. Watson is stunned by the clarity of the helix data.

The Eureka Moment

Using Chargaff's rules and the X-ray data, Watson & Crick build the model at Cambridge. The base pairs fit perfectly inside the helix!

Part 4: The Revelation (1953)

April 25, 1953

Their paper is published in Nature. It reveals the double helix structure to the world.

"It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material."

Part 5: The Prize & The Injustice

1962: Stockholm

The Nobel Prize is awarded to Watson, Crick, and Wilkins for the discovery of DNA structure.

The Silent Contributor

Rosalind Franklin died of cancer in 1958 at age 37. The Nobel is not awarded posthumously. Her critical role remained overshadowed for decades.