Contribution Photo 51 Towards The Discovery Of DNA Structure

Photo 51
Students’ Name
Institutional Affiliation
Photo 51.
In May 1952, at King’s college London, a PhD student named Raymond Gosling took a DNAs’ X-ray diffraction image and nicknamed it Photo 51. Thus, photo 51 was the name given to the image so obtained. Consequently, photo 51 became a crucial evidence in the identification of the DNA structure.
Gosling was experimenting whether the humidity at which samples were kept could affect the images under the supervision of Rosalind Franklin. Photo 51 had been taken at the highest humidity of 92%. The image contained darker and lighter parts. The darker patches indicated that the diffracted X-ray had repeatedly bombarded the film at that particular point. The patches represented DNA’s bases, which comprises the genetic code. These codes are protein building, which explains inheritance in traits between the parent and kid (Portugal, Cohen & Todd, 1977). 
James Watson and Francis Crick used Photo 51 in their calculations to obtain the structure and size of the double helix strand that was visible. It is from such a move that photo 51 made a contribution towards the discovery of the DNA structure. The double helix structure is a vital part of the entire DNA structure since it is in it that important molecules such as phosphate and deoxyribose are found. Hence, were it not for photo 51, maybe the structure of the DNA structure would still be a mystery and as such, the size and structure of the double helix would not have been worked out yet (Nangreave, Han, Liu & Yan, 2010).
Concisely, photo 51 became a crucial evidence in the identification of the DNA struc...