2. 1953: James Watson and Francis Crick presents the DNA structure Basis: Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin’s X-ray crystallography images of DNA Watson, Crick and Wilkins – Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962
James Watson and Francis Crick publish a description of the double-helix structure of DNA. The paper acknowledges that the authors were "stimulated by knowledge of the unpublished experimental results of" Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin, whose x-ray crystallography images of DNA suggested the structure. Franklin died in 1958; Watson, Crick and Wilkins are awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. 1962 Nobel Prize Watson, J. D. and F. H. C. Crick, 1953. Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for desoxyribonucleic acid. Nature 171: 737-738. DNA Helix Turns 40, ASM News 60,1994. p