Which two scientists used Rosalind Franklin's data to propose the DNA double helix?

Watson and Crick used Rosalind Franklin’s experimental data to propose the DNA double helix. Franklin’s X-ray diffraction work, especially the image known as Photo 51, provided crucial evidence that DNA had a helical structure and helped reveal its dimensions.

Franklin worked with her student Raymond Gosling at King’s College London. Maurice Wilkins later showed Photo 51 to James Watson, while Max Perutz shared a report containing Franklin’s findings with the Cambridge researchers. Watson and Crick combined these data with chemical information, including Erwin Chargaff’s base-pairing observations, to build their model in 1953.

The familiar story can oversimplify Franklin’s role. She did not merely take one photograph: she produced careful measurements, distinguished A-DNA from B-DNA, and identified important features such as the phosphate groups’ position on the outside. Watson and Crick proposed the model, but Franklin’s results were essential evidence supporting it. The 1962 Nobel Prize went to Watson, Crick, and Wilkins; Franklin had died in 1958 and was not eligible for a posthumous award.