''{{Short description|1952 X-ray diffraction photograph of DNA}}'' {{about|the historic DNA X-ray diffraction image|the play by Anna Ziegler|Photograph 51 (play){{!}}''Photograph 51'' (play)}} {{italic title}} thumb|right|175px|''Photo 51'', showing X-ray diffraction pattern of DNA
{{Double helix2|Name=<big>''Photo 51''</big>|Photo=Photo 51.jpg|Caption=<span style="color: #ffffff">''Photo 51'', an X-ray diffraction image of sodium saltt of DNA.</span> B configuration}}
'''''Photo 51''''' is a 1952 X-ray based fiber diffraction image of a paracrystalline gel composed of DNA fiber<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Franklin|first1=R. E.|last2=Gosling|first2=R. G.|date=1953-09-10|title=The structure of sodium thymonucleate fibres. I. The influence of water content|journal=Acta Crystallographica|volume=6|issue=8|pages=673–677|doi=10.1107/S0365110X53001939|bibcode=1953AcCry...6..673F |doi-access=free}}</ref> taken by Rosalind Franklin's PhD student Raymond Gosling at King's College London,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sutton |first=Brian |date=14 April 2023 |title=The story behind Photograph 51 |url=https://www.kcl.ac.uk/the-story-behind-photograph-51 |access-date=2026-04-20 |website=King's College London |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Hernandez |first=Victoria |date=2019-12-30 |title=Photograph 51, by Rosalind Franklin (1952) |url=https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/photograph-51-rosalind-franklin-1952 |access-date=2026-04-20 |website=Embryo Project Encyclopedia}}</ref> while working in Sir John Randall's group;<ref name="Attar">{{cite journal |last1=Attar |first1=N |title=Raymond Gosling: the man who crystallized genes |journal=Genome Biology |year=2013 |volume=14 |issue=4 |pages=402 |doi= 10.1186/gb-2013-14-4-402|pmid=23651528 |pmc=3663117 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Williams2019" /><ref name="pbs51">{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/photo51/ |title=Secret of Photo 51. Nova |publisher=PBS |access-date=2017-09-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831201252/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/photo51/ |archive-date=2017-08-31 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="gene">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/genehistoricalpe0000ever |url-access=registration |quote=PHOTO 51 rosalind franklin. |title=The gene: a historical perspective |page=[https://archive.org/details/genehistoricalpe0000ever/page/85 85] |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2007 |isbn=9780313334498 }}</ref> Maurice Wilkins later shared the image with James Watson without their permission.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cohen |first=Jon |date=15 September 2025 |title=After bizarre journey, prized history of molecular biology archive finds new home |url=https://www.science.org/action/cookieAbsent |access-date=2026-04-20 |website=American Association for the Advancement of Science |language=en}}</ref> The image was tagged "photo 51" because it was the 51st diffraction photograph that Gosling had taken.<ref name="nature-pastcast">{{cite journal |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01347-8/ |title=PastCast: The other DNA papers |date=26 April 2019 |doi=10.1038/d41586-019-01347-8 |access-date=4 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190605110254/https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01347-8 |archive-date=5 June 2019 |url-status=live |last1=Smith |first1=Kerri |journal=Nature |s2cid=201414443 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> It was critical evidence<ref name="pbs flash">{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/photo51/anat-flash.html |title=Anatomy of Photo 51 |last=Krock |first=Lexi |work=NOVA online |publisher=PBS |date=22 April 2003 |access-date=8 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100729050654/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/photo51/anat-flash.html |archive-date=29 July 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref> in identifying the structure of DNA.<ref name="nature171">{{cite journal |first1=James D. |last1=Watson |author-link1=James D. Watson |first2=Francis |last2=Crick |author-link2=Francis Crick |year=1953 |title=A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid |journal=Nature |volume=171 |pages=737–738 |url=http://www.nature.com/nature/dna50/watsoncrick.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030403052855/http://www.nature.com/nature/dna50/watsoncrick.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2003-04-03 |doi=10.1038/171737a0 |pmid=13054692 |issue=4356|bibcode=1953Natur.171..737W |s2cid=4253007 }}</ref>
==Use in discovering structure of DNA== ''Photo 51'' was taken by Raymond Gosling, working under Rosalind Franklin, on 2 May 1952.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sutton |first1=Brian |title=The story behind Photograph 51 |url=https://www.kcl.ac.uk/the-story-behind-photograph-51 |website=King's College London |access-date=9 November 2025 |date=14 April 2023}}</ref> According to a later account by Gosling, although ''Photo 51'' was an exceptionally clear diffraction pattern of the "B" form of DNA, Franklin was more interested in solving the diffraction pattern of the "A" form of DNA, so she put Gosling's ''Photo 51'' to the side. When it had been decided that Franklin would leave King's College, and with Gosling now reporting to Wilkins,<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Matthew Cobb |author2=Nathaniel Comfort |title=What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure |journal=Nature |date=25 April 2023 |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01313-5 |access-date=10 November 2025 |quote=Gosling was now being supervised by Wilkins, and he had given Wilkins the photograph}}</ref> Gosling showed the photograph to Maurice Wilkins<ref name=Nature2019>{{cite journal |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01347-8/ |title=PastCast: The other DNA papers |date=26 April 2019 |doi=10.1038/d41586-019-01347-8 |quote=Raymond Gosling: 'I took it down the corridor and gave it to him because it had reached the stage now when Rosalind was going to leave, so she suggested that I go down the corridor and give this beautiful structure B pattern, this photo 51, to Maurice. Maurice couldn’t believe it when I offered it to him. He couldn’t believe that I hadn’t stolen it from her desk. He didn’t think that she could ever offer him something as interesting as this.' |access-date=4 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190605110254/https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01347-8 |archive-date=5 June 2019 |url-status=live |last1=Smith |first1=Kerri |journal=Nature |s2cid=201414443 |url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tobin |first=Martin J. |date=2003-04-15 |title=April 25, 1953: Three Papers, Three Lessons |url=https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/10.1164/rccm.2302011 |journal=American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine |language=en |volume=167 |issue=8 |pages=1047–1049 |doi=10.1164/rccm.2302011 |pmid=12684243 |issn=1073-449X |quote=On January 30, 1953, Watson visited King's. Without Franklin's permission, Wilkins showed her data to Watson—in particular, an X-ray crystallograph (of May 1952) that provided unquestionable evidence of the helical structure of DNA.|url-access=subscription }}</ref> (who would become Gosling's advisor after Franklin left).
A few days later, Wilkins showed the photo to James Watson after Gosling had returned to working under Wilkins' supervision. Franklin did not know this at the time because she was leaving King's College London. Randall, the head of the group, had asked Gosling to share all his data with Wilkins.<ref name="Williams2019">{{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Gareth |title=Unravelling the Double Helix |year=2019 |publisher=Pegasus Books |location=New York |isbn=978-1-64313-215-0 |pages = 264–267|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CdeuDwAAQBAJ}}</ref> Watson recognized the pattern as a helix because his co-worker Francis Crick had previously published a paper of what the diffraction pattern of a helix would be.<ref name=Nature2019 /> Watson and Crick used characteristics and features of ''Photo 51'', together with evidence from multiple other sources, to develop the chemical model of the DNA molecule. Their model, along with papers by Wilkins and colleagues, and by Gosling and Franklin, were first published, together, in 1953, in the same issue of ''Nature''.
In 1962, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Watson, Crick and Wilkins. The prize was not awarded to Franklin; she had died four years earlier, and although there was not yet a rule against posthumous awards,<ref name="nobelprize_posthumous">{{cite web |work=Official Website of the Nobel Prizes |title=Nobel Prize Facts |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/facts/ |access-date=24 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170708135926/https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/facts/ |archive-date=8 July 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref> the Nobel Committee generally does not make posthumous nominations.<ref name="bbc2895681">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2895681.stm |title=My aunt, the DNA pioneer |work=BBC News |date=24 April 2003 |access-date=18 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070828122335/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2895681.stm |archive-date=28 August 2007 |url-status=live }}</ref> Gosling's work also was not cited by the prize committee.
The photograph provided key information that was essential for developing a model of DNA.<ref name="nature171" /><ref name="Maddox, Brenda 2002" /> The diffraction pattern determined the helical nature of the double helix strands (antiparallel). The outside of the DNA chain has a backbone of alternating deoxyribose and phosphate moieties, and the base pairs, the order of which provides codes for protein building and thereby inheritance, are inside the helix. Watson and Crick's calculations from Gosling and Franklin's photography gave crucial values for the size and structure of the helix.<ref name="Maddox, Brenda 2002" />
''Photo 51'' became a crucial data source<ref name="Watson 1968 p167">"The instant I saw the picture my mouth fell open and my pulse began to race." James D. Watson (1968), ''The Double Helix'', page 167. New York: Atheneum, Library of Congress card number 68-16217. Page 168 shows the X-shaped pattern of the B-form of DNA which provided details of the helical structure of DNA to both scientists Watson and Crick.</ref> that led to the development of the DNA model and confirmed the prior postulated double helical structure of DNA, which were presented in the series of three articles in the journal ''Nature'' in 1953.
thumb|Cartoon explanation of how ''Photo 51'' captured the double helix structure of DNA.
As historians of science have re-examined the period during which this image was obtained, considerable controversy has arisen over both the significance of the contribution of this image to the work of Watson and Crick, as well as the methods by which they obtained the image. Franklin had been hired independently of Maurice Wilkins, who, taking over as Gosling's new supervisor, showed ''Photo 51'' to Watson and Crick without Franklin's knowledge. Whether Franklin would have deduced the structure of DNA on her own, from her own data, had Watson and Crick not obtained Gosling's image, is a hotly debated topic,<ref name="nature171" /><ref name="Maddox, Brenda 2002">{{cite book |last=Maddox |first=Brenda |year=2002 |title=Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA |url=https://archive.org/details/rosalindfranklin00madd |url-access=registration |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-393-32044-2 }}</ref><ref name="Perutz">''Max Perutz and the Secret of Life''. Published in the UK by Chatto & Windus ({{ISBN|0-7011-7695-4}}), and in the USA by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.</ref><ref name="Wilkins">{{cite book |last1=Wilkins |last2=Wilkins |first2=M. |title=The Third Man of the Double Helix: An Autobiography |year=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford }}</ref> made more controversial by the negative caricature of Franklin presented in the early chapters of Watson's history of the research on DNA structure, ''The Double Helix''.<ref name="Maddox, Brenda 2002" /><ref name="Watson 1968">{{cite book |first=James D. |last=Watson |title=The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA |orig-year=1968 |publisher=Atheneum |year=1980 |isbn=978-0-689-70602-8 }}</ref><ref name="Sayre">{{cite book |last=Sayre |first=Anne |title=Rosalind Franklin and DNA |url=https://archive.org/details/rosalindfranklin00anne |url-access=registration |year=1975 |location=New York |publisher=W. W. Norton and Company |isbn=978-0-393-32044-2 }}</ref> Watson admitted his distortion of Franklin in his book, noting in the epilogue: <blockquote>Since my initial impressions about [Franklin], both scientific and personal (as recorded in the early pages of this book) were often wrong, I want to say something here about her achievements.<ref name="Watson 1980">{{cite book |first=James D. |last=Watson |title=The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA |year=1980 |edition=1980 Norton Critical |editor=Gunther Stent |publisher=W. W. Norton and Company |isbn=978-0-393-95075-5 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/doublehelixpers00wats_0 }}</ref> </blockquote>
==Cultural references== * A 56-minute documentary, ''DNA – Secret of Photo 51'', was broadcast in 2003 on PBS ''NOVA''.<ref name=pbs51/> Narrated by Sigourney Weaver, the program features interviews with Wilkins, Gosling, Aaron Klug, Brenda Maddox,<ref>{{cite web|title=NOVA: DNA – Secret of Photo 51 (2003)|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/389902/NOVA-DNA-Secret-of-Photo-51/overview|access-date=26 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150204074312/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/389902/NOVA-DNA-Secret-of-Photo-51/overview|archive-date=4 February 2015|department=Movies & TV Dept.|work=The New York Times|author=Nathan Southern|year=2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> including Franklin's friends Vittorio Luzzati, Donald Caspar, Anne Piper, and Sue Richley.<ref>{{cite web|title=Secret of Photo 51 Transcript|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/3009_photo51.html|publisher=PBS|access-date=26 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141231071217/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/3009_photo51.html|archive-date=31 December 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> The UK version produced by the BBC is titled ''Rosalind Franklin: DNA's Dark Lady''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Rosalind Franklin: DNA's Dark Lady (2003) (TV)|url=http://moviespictures.org/movie/Rosalind_Franklin_DNAs_Dark_Lady_2003_TV|website=MoviesPictures.ORG|access-date=4 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150204065108/http://moviespictures.org/movie/Rosalind_Franklin_DNAs_Dark_Lady_2003_TV|archive-date=4 February 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> *The first episode of a PBS documentary serial, ''DNA'', which aired on 4 January 2004<ref>{{cite web|title=Season 1, Episode 1 The Secret of Life|url=http://www.tvguide.com/shows/dna-413036/episode-1-season-1/the-secret-of-life/|website=TV Guide|access-date=26 January 2015}}</ref> as "The Secret of Life", centres on and features the contributions of Franklin. Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, it features Watson, Wilkins, Gosling and Peter Pauling (son of Linus Pauling).<ref>{{cite web|title=Episode 1: The Secret of Life|url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/dna/episode1/|publisher=PBS|access-date=26 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141230115118/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/dna/episode1/|archive-date=30 December 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> * A play entitled ''Photograph 51'' by Anna Ziegler focuses on the role of X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin in the discovery of the structure of DNA.<ref name="SA">{{citation |last=Kuchment |first=Anna |date=January 2011 |title=For Whom the Nobel Tolls: An evening out with James Watson and colleagues |periodical=Scientific American |publisher=Nature America | volume=304 |issue=1 |page=27 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0111-27 }}</ref><ref name=Cox>{{cite news|last1=Cox|first1=Gordon|title=Nicole Kidman to Star on West End in 'Photograph 51'|url=https://variety.com/2015/legit/news/nicole-kidman-west-end-1201478267/|access-date=25 August 2015|work=Variety|date=April 23, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908014035/http://variety.com/2015/legit/news/nicole-kidman-west-end-1201478267/|archive-date=8 September 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> This play won the third ''STAGE'' International Script Competition in 2008.<ref name=ATW>{{cite news|title=Ziegler's Photograph 51 Wins STAGE International Script Competition|url=http://www.americantheaterweb.com/index.php/originals/2008/08/05/zieglers-ligphotograph-51l-ig-wins-stage|access-date=25 August 2015|work=American Theater Web News|date=August 5, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150927154903/http://www.americantheaterweb.com/index.php/originals/2008/08/05/zieglers-ligphotograph-51l-ig-wins-stage|archive-date=2015-09-27|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2015, the play was put on at London West End, with Nicole Kidman playing Franklin.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.londontheatredirect.com/news/1648/Nicole-Kidman-Returns-To-The-West-End-In-Photograph-51--Tickets-On-Sale-Now-.aspx |title=Nicole Kidman Returns To The West End In Photograph 51 |first=Jacob |last=Porteous |work=London Theatre Direct |date=24 April 2015 |access-date=27 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016015641/https://www.londontheatredirect.com/news/1648/Nicole-Kidman-Returns-To-The-West-End-In-Photograph-51--Tickets-On-Sale-Now-.aspx |archive-date=16 October 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref> * A 107-minute documentary, ''Life Story'', BBC Horizon science series 1987, starring Juliet Stevenson as Rosalind Franklin, Nicholas Fry as Raymond Gosling<ref>{{cite web | url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/9820fc48eeb24a9b9e10ac42126e0d59 | title=BBC Programme Index | date=27 April 1987 | access-date=23 March 2024 | archive-date=23 March 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240323210756/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/9820fc48eeb24a9b9e10ac42126e0d59 | url-status=dead }}</ref> <!-- Not notable: * Sacramento, California based power metal band Helion Prime featured a song by the same name on their album ''Question Everything''. --> ==See also== * List of photographs considered the most important
==References== {{reflist}}
{{King's College DNA|state=expanded}} {{History of biology}}
Category:X-ray crystallography Category:DNA Category:Black-and-white photographs Category:Genetics in the United Kingdom Category:History of genetics Category:Works originally published in Nature (journal) Category:1952 works Category:1952 in art Category:1950s photographs