The third paper in the April 25, 1953, issue of Nature was by Franklin and Gosling. It contained the famous X-ray photograph of structure B. True to Franklin’s general attitude to science, the manuscript was formulated cautiously to read:

While we do not attempt to offer a complete interpretation of the fibre-diagram of structure B, we may state the following conclusions. The structure is probably helical. The phosphate groups lie on the outside of the structural unit, on a helix of diameter about 20 Angstroms. The structural unit probably consists of two coaxial molecules which are not equally spaced along the fibre axis . . . Thus our general ideas are not inconsistent with the model proposed by Watson and Crick in the preceding communication.

Few would disagree with the statement that Franklin’s exquisite X-ray diffraction photographs provided crucial information concerning DNA’s overall structure and specific dimensions. Sadly, Rosalind Franklin died from cancer in 1958 at the age of thirty-seven. It is conceivable that the disease was brought on by overexposure to those same X-rays that helped uncover the structure of DNA. Four years later, Watson, Crick, and Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the molecular structure of DNA and its significance for information transfer in living material. Since the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously and cannot be shared by more than three people (in a given category in a given year), we shall never know what would have happened had Franklin survived until 1962.

In 2009 the famous photograph 51 became the title of a successful play by Anna Ziegler. As its title implies, the fictionalized account in the play concentrated on Rosalind Franklin and her rocky relationship with Maurice Wilkins. When asked to comment on the play, Watson remarked that the character of Maurice Wilkins “talked too much,” while the actor who played Crick did not do justice to the real Crick, since the play imparted him with a “used-car-salesman” vibe.

No one likes to admit defeat, and scientists are no exception. In a letter Pauling wrote to Peter on March 27, 1953, he first “casually” noted: