maurice wilkins collected the x-ray diffraction images originally used to describe the current model for the molecular structure of dna.
who collected the x-ray diffraction images originally used to describe the current model for the molecular structure of dna?
maurice wilkins
gosling was then assigned to rosalind franklin when she joined king's college in 1951. they worked under the direction of sir john randall. together they produced the first x-ray diffraction photographs of the "form b" paracrystalline arrays of highly hydrated dna. during the next two years, the pair worked closely together to perfect the technique of x-ray diffraction photography of dna and obtained at the time the sharpest diffraction images of dna. gosling made the x-ray diffraction image of dna known as "photograph 51". this work led directly to the 1962 nobel prize for physiology or medicine being awarded to francis crick, james d. watson and maurice wilkins. gosling was the co-author with franklin of one of the three dna double helix papers published in "nature" in april 1953.
raymond gosling
it is also not clear how important franklin's unpublished results from the progress report actually were for the model-building done by watson and crick. after the first crude x-ray diffraction images of dna were collected in the 1930s, william astbury had talked about stacks of nucleotides spaced at 3.4 angström (0.34 nanometre) intervals in dna. a citation to astbury's earlier x-ray diffraction work was one of only eight references in franklin's first paper on dna. analysis of astbury's published dna results and the better x-ray diffraction images collected by wilkins and franklin revealed the helical nature of dna. it was possible to predict the number of bases stacked within a single turn of the dna helix (10 per turn; a full turn of the helix is 27 angströms [2.7 nm] in the compact a form, 34 angströms [3.4 nm] in the wetter b form). wilkins shared this information about the b form of dna with crick and watson. crick did not see franklin's b form x-ray images (photo 51) until after the dna double helix model was published.
francis crick