On April 25, 1953, the science journal Nature announced that James Watson and Francis Crick had discovered the double helix structure of DNA, the molecule that is fundamental to life. But absent from most accounts of their Nobel Prize-winning work is the contribution made by a scientist — molecular biologist and crystallographer Rosalind Franklin — who would never know that Watson and Crick had seen a key piece of her data without her permission and that it would lead them to the double helix.
Fifty years later, “Secret of Photo 51” unravels the mystery behind the discovery of the double helix and investigates the seminal role that Rosalind Franklin and her remarkable X-ray photograph played in one of the greatest discoveries in the history of science
The above from the program description of NOVA’S The Secret of Photo 51.
We all know that history is the story of what happened told by the people in power. That fact was the impetus back in the 70s for “herstory” in contrast to “history.” But power, being what it is, put enough bad spin on that idea to set it back to where it still is today — excect when a non-mainstream public media outlet like PBS opens our eyes to the true stories.