Condom was key to DNA discovery

A SCIENTIST has revealed the crucial role played by a condom in the discovery of the structure of DNA.

Professor Raymond Gosling was working in a basement laboratory at King's College, London, where the first attempts were being made to photograph patterns made by X-rays bouncing off the DNA molecule.

At the time, Prof Gosling was a young PhD student working alongside Dr Rosalind Franklin and Professor Maurice Wilkins now legendary names in the story of DNA.

The scientists had to solve the problem of air leaking into the apparatus and hydrogen gas escaping. Sealing wax failed to stem the leakdid not do the trick, but then Prof Wilkins had a Eureka moment.

Recalling the occasionback in the 1950s, Professor Gosling said yesterday: "This senior figure of the laboratory amazed me by drawing a condom from his pocket and saying 'here, little Raymond, put this round the collimator.'"

The experiment led directly to Cambridge-based Francis Crick and James Watson's historic 1953 solution to the double helix structure. in 1953.

Prof Gosling, Prof Wilkins and Dr Watson were all present at a special event at King's College yesterday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the discovery. Dr Franklin died of cancer in 1958, aged just 37, and missed out on the Nobel Prize later awarded to Watson, Crick and Wilkins.