Discovery of a double helix structure of DNA

April 25, 1953: The discovery of the double helix structure of DNA is one of the most important and well-known scientific breakthroughs. The discovery was credited to James Watson, a biologist, and Francis Crick, a physicist, in the 1950s. They announced that they had determined the double-helix structure of DNA, the molecule containing human genes, in 1953.

They later won the Nobel Prize for their research, along with Maurice Wilkins, who is often overlooked for his important role in the research that led to the breakthrough.

Their work was based on the x-ray crystallography structures collected and analyzed by another scientist, Rosalind Franklin, who was an expert in an imaging technique that she used to produce the first ever image of the helical shape of DNA. Franklin's data was crucial for Watson and Crick to ascertain clues about the structure of DNA.