Which scientist called Franklin's DNA images among the most beautiful X-ray photographs?

John Desmond Bernal called Franklin’s DNA images among the most beautiful X-ray photographs ever taken.

The images came from Franklin’s work at King’s College London, where she used X-ray fibre diffraction to investigate DNA. Her graduate student Raymond Gosling took the famous Photo 51 in 1952, while working in the research group led by John Randall. The distinctive X-shaped pattern was evidence of DNA’s helical structure.

Bernal was an Irish crystallographer and a major pioneer in applying X-ray methods to biological molecules. He later recruited Franklin to Birkbeck College, where she moved in 1953 and began leading research on tobacco mosaic virus and other viruses.

A common mix-up is to credit Franklin alone with taking Photo 51. She directed the experimental work and interpreted the diffraction data, but Gosling actually recorded that particular photograph. The image was later shown to James Watson by Maurice Wilkins, becoming influential in the double-helix story.