Who took the X-ray diffraction image Photo 51?

Who took the X-ray diffraction image Photo 51? Raymond Gosling took it.

Gosling was Rosalind Franklin’s doctoral student at King’s College London and worked in John Randall’s research group. He produced the image on 2 May 1952 while studying DNA fibers using X-ray crystallography.

The photograph was labeled “Photo 51” because it was the 51st diffraction image Gosling had taken. Its distinctive X-shaped pattern showed that DNA had a helical structure.

Maurice Wilkins did not take the image. He later obtained and showed it to James Watson, who recognized its significance. Franklin supervised Gosling’s work and contributed essential analysis, but the photograph itself was made by Gosling.

The image became crucial evidence supporting Watson and Crick’s model of DNA’s double helix, published in 1953.