The Double-Helix Model of DNA
In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick published the first correct model of DNA’s double helix. But the discovery rested on a wider body of scientific work. Researchers at King’s College London, including Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins, obtained key X-ray diffraction data; Franklin and her student Raymond Gosling published a companion paper in the same 25 April 1953 issue of *Nature*.
So “Watson and Crick discovered the double helix” is a shorthand for their model, but it does not tell the full story of the experimental data and contributions. The two helical strands and complementary base pairing suggested a mechanism for copying DNA.