The double-helix structure of DNA has an equally twisted story behind its discovery. Back in the 1950s, people knew the capabilities of DNA--the molecules that convey all our genetic information--but no one could describe its shape.

Rosalind Franklin, a scientist who studied carbon fibers, worked together with a scientist named Maurice Wilkins to figure out the structure of DNA using x-ray beams. However, Franklin was viewed as an assistant to Wilkins instead of his peer.

Later, their unpublished research was used by two guys named James Watson and Francis Crick, who eventually published their own DNA research and, together with Wilkins, were named the winners of the the Nobel Prize in 1962 for physiology and medicine. Franklin did not get any credit for her role in the discovery of DNA's structure and how it worked.

Watson later wrote about the experience and did not fully explain Franklin's efforts; he described her as "Rosy, Wilkins' assistant." Eventually, he apologized and changed some of the negative portrayals of Franklin. But ultimately, Franklin never spoke out against the slights. She died at 37 from cancer, a few years before the Nobel Prize was awarded, but author and friend Anne Sayre gave Franklin the credit she deserves in the biography "Rosalind Franklin and DNA". --cheryl