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How did Rosalind Franklin's X-ray diffraction work reveal DNA's shape?
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Nucleic acid
A portion of the polynucleotide chain of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), with an inset showing the corresponding pentose sugar and pyrimidine base in ribonucleic acid (RNA).
Rosalind Franklinās research was instrumental in identifying the structure of DNA. By applying X-ray diffraction techniques to DNA samples at Kingās College London, she was able to produce clearer X-ray patterns of the molecule than had previously been achieved.12
Through this meticulous work, Franklin discovered the density of DNA and established that it existed in a helical conformation. Her high-quality diffraction data provided the essential evidence that allowed James Watson and Francis Crick to propose in 1953 that DNA is a double-helix polymerāa structure consisting of two strands wound around each other. Her contributions were foundational to our modern understanding of how genetic information is encoded.12