DNA discovery, 1952. X-ray diffraction photograph of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), obtained in May 1952 by King's College London researchers Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling. This image, commonly called 'Photo 51', is of the beta (b-form) of DNA. The following year (1953), the structure of DNA was deduced by Watson and Crick, aided by the X-ray diffraction work by Franklin and Gosling. The image results from a beam of X-rays being scattered onto a photographic plate by the DNA. Various features about the structure of the DNA can be determined from the pattern of spots and bands. The cross of bands indicates the helical nature of DNA.