March 7, 2003

The Myth Behind 'the Dark Lady of DNA'

By LILA GUTERMAN

With this spring's 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA's structure, much of the attention will rightly focus on the two men who dreamed up the double helix, James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick. But some scholars think credit is also due to Rosalind E. Franklin, the King's College London researcher whose photo of DNA helped Mr. Watson and Mr. Crick puzzle out the structure.

Ms. Franklin didn't know that her colleague Maurice H.F. Wilkins had shown Mr. Watson her data. She died