NOVA
Season 30 Episode 16 - Secret of Photo 51
On April 25, 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick published their groundbreaking discovery of the double helix structure of DNA, the molecule essential for passing on our genes and the ''secret of life.'' But their crucial breakthrough depended on the pioneering work of another biologistÐRosalind Franklin. She would never know that Watson and Crick had seen a crucial piece of her data without her permission. This was an X-ray image, ''Photo 51,'' that proved to be a vital clue in their decoding of the double helix. 50 years later, NOVA investigates the shocking truth behind one of the greatest scientific discoveries and presents a moving portrait of a brilliant woman in an era of male-dominated science. Sadly, Franklin never lived to see her vital role in the discovery vindicated. While Watson and Crick went on to win the Nobel Prize in 1962, Franklin died in 1958, at 37, from ovarian cancer; and the Nobel is not awarded posthumously. Hear the inside story from Maurice Wilkins, the colleague who showed her crucial x-ray to Watson; Raymond Gosling, FranklinÕs Ph.D. student with whom she made Photo 51; and Nobel Prize winner Sir Aaron Klug, FranklinÕs last collaborator, who shows new evidence of just how close Franklin came to making the vital double helix discovery herself.
Episodes in Season 30
Killer Disease on Campus
55 min
Mysterious Life of Caves
55 min
Lost Roman Treasure
55 min
Galileo's Battle for the Heavens
55 min
Volcano's Deadly Warning
55 min
Sinking City of Venice
55 min
The Orchid Hunter
55 min
Spies That Fly
55 min
Last Flight of Bomber 31
55 min
Ancient Creature of the Deep
55 min
Battle of the X-Planes
55 min
Mountain of Ice
55 min
Lost Treasures of Tibet
55 min
Dirty Bomb
55 min
Deep Sea Invasion
55 min
Secret of Photo 51
55 min
