Brain Waves: The Twist in Rosalind Franklin’s Role in DNA Discovery

It’s been 70 years since the discovery of the double helix structure of the DNA back in 1953, by James Watson and Francis Crick. These two and Maurice Wilkins went on to win a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1962 for their discovery. Now, a key part of this story was the accusations that another colleague, Rosalind Franklin, was robbed of her data - and thus acknowledgement - which formed a crucial part of the discovery. But was this really the case? And looking back at our knowledge of DNA, how did the discovery of the double-helix structure help us better understand its function? 

Neurogeneticist Dr Azlina Ahmad Annuar joins us on this episode of Brain Waves to help us dive into how much we’ve learned about DNA in the past 70 years, and whether there’s still more for us to learn in the years to come.

Image Credit: Vittorio Luzzati/CSHL