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James Watson

1 story mention James Watson on DeadlyCurious.

The Cabinet June 27, 2026 · King's College London

The X-Ray Crystallographer Whose Photo 51 Gave Watson and Crick the DNA Helix and Whose Name Was Left Off the Nobel

Rosalind Franklin produced X-ray diffraction Photo 51 of DNA in May 1952. Maurice Wilkins showed it to James Watson in January 1953 without her knowledge. The Watson-Crick double-helix paper appeared in *Nature* on 25 April 1953. Franklin died of ovarian cancer on 16 April 1958, aged 37. The 1962 Nobel Prize went to Watson, Crick, and Wilkins.

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