Which Nobel category did Crick, Watson, and Wilkins share in 1962?

Crick, Watson, and Wilkins shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins received the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material. Their award recognised the discovery of DNA’s double-helical structure and its biological implications.

Rosalind Franklin was not a recipient because she had died in 1958, and Nobel Prizes are not awarded posthumously. Her X-ray diffraction work, especially the image known as Photo 51, supplied crucial evidence about DNA’s helical form. Raymond Gosling, her doctoral student, made the photograph under her supervision.

The category is sometimes misremembered as Chemistry because Franklin was a physical chemist and crystallographer. However, the 1962 Nobel award to Crick, Watson, and Wilkins was explicitly in Physiology or Medicine. Aaron Klug, who continued Franklin’s virus research, later won the 1982 Chemistry Nobel.