DNA Unlocked: Watson and Crick Reveal Double Helix

James Watson and Francis Crick walked into the Eagle pub in Cambridge on February 28, 1953, and announced they had 'found the secret of life.' Their double-helix model of DNA, built from metal plates and rods in their Cavendish Laboratory office, explained how genetic information is stored and replicated. The model was based critically on X-ray crystallography data produced by Rosalind Franklin at King's College London, which Watson saw without her knowledge or consent. Franklin's 'Photo 51' revealed the helical structure that Watson and Crick needed to complete their model. She died of ovarian cancer in 1958, likely caused by radiation exposure from her research, and did not share the 1962 Nobel Prize that Watson, Crick, and Franklin's colleague Maurice Wilkins received. Her contribution was largely unacknowledged for decades. The discovery launched molecular biology as a discipline, enabling the genetic code to be deciphered by 1966 and eventually leading to the Human Genome Project.