Rosalind Franklin

Some view Rosalind Franklin as the discoverer of the double-helix structure of DNA.
Her work in X-ray crystallography did advance the discovery of DNAs structure,
although no credit was given to her by the Nobel Peace Prize Award Committee
because of her early death at age 37 due to ovarian cancer which made her
ineligible for nomination in the 1962 Nobel Prizes. The discovery of DNAs double
helix structure ended up being credited to Francis Crick and James Watson. These
two men received the Nobel Prize for medicine. They did agree that they were
inspired by Franklins work (photograph 51), yet Franklin still lost most of the credit
she deserved. The double helix structure of DNA is integral in understanding how
hundreds of miles of DNA can be packaged into a single cellular nucleus. The
discovery of DNAs structure also enabled research to be done regarding what
specific codon sequences and genes perform in DNA, which is applied to modern
medicine in understanding how to personally treat patients.