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Transcript
April 22, 2003
NARRATOR: It was one of the most important scientific discoveries of the 20th century: revealing the structure of DNA, the molecule that is the very blueprint of life. But few know that much of the discovery rested on the work of one woman whose contribution, until only recently, remained largely ignored.
As shown in this re-creation on PBS's NOVA, Rosalind Franklin was researching DNA through the use of X-ray photographs. Hers were the best of that era. One was called "Photo 51." Franklin's competitors, James Watson and Francis Crick, got access to Photo 51 without her permission.
LYNNE ELKIN (professor of biological sciences): She is the person who did the experimental work that was used to figure out the structure of DNA. Watson and Crick figured out the final steps of it, and they had access to her data.
NARRATOR: Photo 51 helped Watson and Crick establish that DNA is shaped like a twisting ladder, or "double helix."
BRENDA MADDOX (Franklin biographer): They saw the meaning of what they saw and they kind of vaulted to the summit.
NARRATOR: They announced their discovery, won the Nobel Prize, and became part of scientific history. Rosalind Franklin died at 37, four years before the Nobel was awarded. At the ceremony, her role in exposing the secret of life was barely mentioned. I'm Brad Kloza.
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