Final answer:
Francis Crick and James Watson worked together with Rosalind Franklin to determine the structure of DNA, which is a double helix made up of two strands of nucleotides.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the 1950s, Francis Crick and James Watson worked together at the University of Cambridge, England, to determine the structure of DNA. Other scientists, such as Linus Pauling and Maurice Wilkins, were also actively exploring this field. Pauling had discovered the secondary structure of proteins using X-ray crystallography. In Wilkins' lab, researcher Rosalind Franklin was using X-ray crystallography to understand the structure of DNA.
Watson and Crick were able to piece together the puzzle of the DNA molecule using Franklin's data. They discovered that DNA is made of two strands of nucleotides formed into a double helix, with the sugar and phosphate groups on the outside, and the paired bases connecting the two strands on the inside of the helix.
In 1962, James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their work in determining the structure of DNA.