Explore a 3D model of the experimental setup Rosalind Franklin used to take Photo 51

Photo 51's distinct 'X' pattern and spacing provided data to validate DNA's model

Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling captured the photo after bombarding DNA fibers with X-rays and observing how the beams were deflected. The photo had a 62-hour exposure time and indicated a helical structure for DNA.

X-ray data from Rosalind Franklin was key to discovering DNA’s double-helix structure

Although unpublished, the data reached James Watson and Francis Crick, who worked at another institution. Incorporating her data allowed them to validate their model of DNA, which they published without crediting her.

Rosalind Franklin’s work led to Nobel Prize-winning discoveries in DNA and virology

Her X-ray diffraction imaging helped uncover the structure of DNA, which earned James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins a Nobel Prize. The same techniques enabled virus imaging, contributing to Aaron Klug's Nobel Prize in chemistry.

View the model of the tobacco mosaic virus from the 1958 Brussels World's Fair

After she finished analyzing her X-ray diffraction data on DNA fibers, Rosalind Franklin explored plant virus structures. For her work on the TMV, she was invited to build this 5-foot model, modified from earlier versions made of ping pong balls and bicycle handlebar grips.

Watch a crystal undergo X-ray diffraction to determine its internal geometry

In the early days of X-ray crystallography, getting photos of a single sample could take dozens of hours, followed by months of mathematical analysis. Today, automation and computer software can complete such tasks in a few hours.

Exploring carbon compound pore structures contributed to improved gas mask filtration

During World War II, the British Coal Utilisation Research Association sought to improve the efficiency of coal as an energy source and studied the effectiveness of charcoal filters to keep soldiers safe. Rosalind Franklin's research there formed the basis of her PhD and led to five scientific papers.

The structure of DNA helices comes in three major varieties

The hereditary molecule can take the form of A-DNA, B-DNA, or Z-DNA based on environmental conditions such as ion concentration and humidity—a characteristic identified by Rosalind Franklin. A-DNA is the shortest and widest of the three, while Z-DNA is the longest and narrowest. B-DNA—the most common variety in living cells—is the intermediate.

Synchrotron radiation has revealed the fur color of creatures millions of years old

When electrons are accelerated in the loop, they produce intense X-rays that can reveal properties of a sample struck by them, just as X-rays can be used to show bone structure in humans. Studying the reflected light from fossils can uncover the presence of known pigmentation compounds.

View the fluorescently stained internal structures of a tardigrade

The photograph won the Olympus Global Life Science Light Microscopy Americas regional award in 2019. Using chemicals from biofluorescent organisms, the image illuminates internal structures with multiple hues in an otherwise mostly colorless organism.

Glowing chemicals allow scientists to read DNA like a barcode

The process of determining the order of nitrogenous bases in DNA involves first cutting the DNA into fragments, which are duplicated multiple times using bacteria. Fluorescently labeled terminator bases are added to fragments, which are sorted by length and read via laser to reconstruct the sequence.

Ernest Rutherford's gold foil and nitrogen experiments revealed nuclear structure

Observing high-angle deflections when alpha particles were fired at gold foil led to an atomic model with a dense, positively charged nucleus. Firing those particles at nitrogen resulted in the emission of hydrogen nuclei—protons—leading to the discovery of the subatomic particle.

Visualize how CRISPR works at the molecular level

CRISPR is a revolutionary gene-editing technology already making a real-world impact in helping to treat several diseases and conditions. This simulation provides a microscopic view to help easily visualize the complex science.

The discovery of the first extremophile and how it revolutionized DNA analysis

While investigating samples taken from within and around the hot springs at Yellowstone National Park, microbiologist Thomas Brock discovered Thermus aquaticus, a microorganism that thrived in hot water. It contained an enzyme called Taq polymerase, a critical molecule in polymerase chain reaction—a molecular photocopier that amplifies genetic signals to improve medical diagnostics.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

Explore human anatomy with these beautiful images

The Human Organ Atlas offers detailed 3D images of dozens of human organs. It was created with very bright X-rays from a particle accelerator, which is formally called a synchroton imaging method.

The Curies developed a way to measure radioactivity in an old medical dissecting room

Despite lacking proper laboratory conditions, Marie and Pierre built an ionization chamber and a piezoelectric quartz electrometer to measure the amount of charged particles released by radiation, with a sensitivity of ten-trillionth of an ampere. Substances with different emission rates indicated different elements.

Examine a 3D model of the Rosetta Stone

One of the most famous archaeological finds of all time, the 1799 discovery of the Rosetta Stone helped unlock the secrets of ancient Egypt. Inscribed on the granite slab was the same passage in three languages: hieroglyphics, Old Egyptian, and Greek, which enabled scholars to decode the ancient language. Take an up-close look with this 3D model made up of more than 200 composite photos.

Explore the efficiency of photosynthesis under various conditions

In this simulation, users can track how the cellular concentrations of ATP, NADPH, glucose, and oxygen vary over time in response to changes in temperature, acidity, carbon dioxide concentration, and the properties of incoming light. Through multiple trials, users can identify the optimal conditions for photosynthetic reactions.

Dsup slightly unwinds DNA and changes shape to better cling to the molecule

The damage suppressor protein, which is exclusively found in tardigrades, has also been modeled as coating DNA and shielding it from radiation and the toxic byproducts of radiation damage. Dsup may become a fundamental ingredient in future DNA storage technologies.

The $3B project scientists called 'junk'

In 1990, scientists set out to map all of human DNA. A $3B bet many called "junk." But the Human Genome Project's radical transparency and a race with a private company sped it to completion in just 13 years. Today, that once-contested map underpins nearly every breakthrough in genetics and personalized medicine.

The iconic photo of the Wright brothers' first flight was the photographer’s first

Using a then-state-of-the-art Korona V, rescue member John T. Daniels was tasked with squeezing the device’s rubber bulb the moment the plane left the wooden track on the sand. The camera produced negatives on 5 by 7 sheets of glass.

How helium enables MRI machines to look inside organisms

By cooling the machine's magnets with liquid helium to extremely low temperatures, they can generate and maintain powerful magnetic fields that align the hydrogen atoms in living things to point toward a patient's head or feet. A radio pulse nudges these atoms, which realign and induce a measurable signal in nearby electrical coils. These signals are captured in slices and then stacked into a 3D reconstruction.

View 3D renderings of atomic orbitals created with quantum mechanics

Scientists use the Schrödinger equation to determine how a system governed by a wavefunction—an equation that predicts the probability of certain outcomes—evolves with time. Computers can animate atomic structure and behavior by depicting the wavefunction as a fluid that guides a particle, like water moving a speck of dust.

Objects can be 3D printed with light by projecting 2D computerized tomography (CT) scans onto rotating cylinders of resin, which solidify upon exposure.

Explore over 46,000 pages of Charles Darwin's manuscripts

The American Museum of Natural History hosts almost 35,000 digitized folios related to evolution within the fields of botany and zoology from Darwin's Beagle voyage. High-resolution color images, geological findings, and annotated books from Darwin's personal library are also viewable.

Objects can be 3D printed with light by projecting 2D computerized tomography (CT) scans onto rotating cylinders of resin, which solidify upon exposure.

See renderings of Frank Lloyd Wright’s unmade buildings

Only about half of Frank Lloyd Wright’s over 1,000 designs were actually built. In 2018, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation commissioned Spanish architect and 3D designer David Romero to make digital models to see what Wright’s unrealized structures would look like.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

Ebola is a filovirus, meaning it resembles a thread under a microscope, though it sometimes twists and can resemble a bowl of spaghetti.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

Learn how your body is, scientifically, like a firework with its own slow, controlled burn.

Explore the animals that populate the depths of the ocean, from fish and coral in the first few hundred feet, all the way down to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

The original copy of the Declaration of Independence is not a pristine document, and even features a smudged anonymous handprint in the bottom left corner.

Fear or disgust related to clusters of holes and cracks, called trypophobia, may stem from evolutionary processes to help us avoid pathogens.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

This poison ivy knowledge quiz—accompanied by photos of the plant's varied forms—may help you identify this common rash-inducing growth.

All rainbows are 'raincircles' caused by water droplets separating white sunlight into a spectrum of colors, but Earth's surface blocks the bottom half of the circle from our line of sight.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

In 1963, a basement renovation in Turkey revealed a passageway to a hidden, multilevel underground city that once housed as many as 20,000 people

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.