Portal:Science/Famous Scientists

Francis Crick and Thomas Watson - physicist and ornithologist - made one of the most important discoveries of molecular biology in the last century. They discovered the structure of the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) the repository of genetic material.

While the structure of the constituents itself was known, it took several scientists to discover the framework. While Watson and Crick were awarded the Nobel Prize for proposing the double helix model of the DNA - described by molecular biologists as sublimely beautiful, another biophysicist Rosalind Franklin made several crucial discoveries of the DNA including one of the forms of the double helix. Her X-ray crystallography images provided the crucial links and inputs for formulation of a helical model. Rosalind Franklin died before the announcement of the Nobel Prize and her contribution to the discovery of the DNA remained known only to molecular biologists and geneticists.

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