Photo 51

This article is about the historic DNA X-ray diffraction image. For the play by Anna Ziegler, see Photograph 51 (play).
Photo 51, showing X-ray diffraction pattern of DNA
Double helix

Photo 51 is an X-ray based fiber diffraction image of a paracrystalline gel composed of DNA fiber[1] taken by Raymond Gosling,[2][3] a postgraduate student working under the supervision of Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin at King's College London, while working in Sir John Randall's group.[4][5][6][7][8] The image was tagged "photo 51" because it was the 51st diffraction photograph that Franklin had taken.[9] It was critical evidence[10] in identifying the structure of DNA.[11]

  1. ^ Franklin, R. E.; Gosling, R. G. (1953-09-10). "The structure of sodium thymonucleate fibres. I. The influence of water content". Acta Crystallographica. 6 (8): 673–677. Bibcode:1953AcCry...6..673F. doi:10.1107/S0365110X53001939.
  2. ^ "Due credit". Nature. 496 (7445): 270. 18 April 2013. doi:10.1038/496270a. PMID 23607133.
  3. ^ Witkowski J (2019). "The forgotten scientists who paved the way to the double helix". Nature. 568 (7752): 308–309. Bibcode:2019Natur.568..308W. doi:10.1038/d41586-019-01176-9.
  4. ^ Attar, N (2013). "Raymond Gosling: the man who crystallized genes". Genome Biology. 14 (4): 402. doi:10.1186/gb-2013-14-4-402. PMC 3663117. PMID 23651528.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Williams2019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "DNA: the King's story". Archived from the original on 2013-02-07. Retrieved 2013-02-15.
  7. ^ "Secret of Photo 51. Nova". PBS. Archived from the original on 2017-08-31. Retrieved 2017-09-08.
  8. ^ The gene: a historical perspective. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2007. p. 85. ISBN 9780313334498. PHOTO 51 rosalind franklin.
  9. ^ Smith, Kerri (26 April 2019). "PastCast: The other DNA papers". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-019-01347-8. S2CID 201414443. Archived from the original on 5 June 2019. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  10. ^ Krock, Lexi (22 April 2003). "Anatomy of Photo 51". NOVA online. PBS. Archived from the original on 29 July 2010. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
  11. ^ Watson, James D.; Crick, Francis (1953). "A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" (PDF). Nature. 171 (4356): 737–738. Bibcode:1953Natur.171..737W. doi:10.1038/171737a0. PMID 13054692. S2CID 4253007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2003-04-03.