Their breakthrough – pinpointing how our genetic code is passed from parent to child - has led to world-changing advances in many fields, not least in biological research and our understanding and treatment of inherited diseases. 

▲沃森（左）和克里克（右）
Left: James Watson, right: Francis Crick

但这项70年前在剑桥卡文迪什实验室做出的发现之所以成为可能，得益于许多才华横溢的科学家的工作，尤其是X射线晶体学家罗莎琳德·富兰克林。
But the discovery, which was made at Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory 70 years ago, was only possible because of the work of a host of talented scientists, not least X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin.

劳伦斯·布拉格于1938年当选为卡文迪什物理学教授——接替欧内斯特·卢瑟福。在发现 X 射线可用于确定晶体内原子的位置后，布拉格已与他的父亲威廉一起获得了1915年的诺贝尔奖。

Lawrence Bragg’s appointment as Cavendish Professor of Physics in 1938 – succeeding Ernest Rutherford – was also key. Along with his father William, Bragg had already won a Nobel Prize in 1915, after discovering that X-rays could be used to determine the positions of atoms within a crystal.

“布拉格在这方面是一个非常重要的人物，”卡文迪许实验室的研发主任马尔科姆·朗厄尔教授说。

"Bragg was a hugely important figure in this," said Professor Malcolm Longair, Director of Development at the Cavendish Laboratory.

“当他成为卡文迪什教授时，周围的人都相当震惊，因为他是一名晶体学家，而不是实验室引以为傲的核物理方面的专家。他一来到剑桥就鼓励生物物质的X射线晶体研究。”

"When he became Cavendish professor it was quite a shock to the community here, because he was a crystallographer rather than a nuclear physicist, which the laboratory was famous for. He encouraged the X-ray crystallography of biological substances as soon as he came to Cambridge."

马克斯·佩鲁茨获得的有关血红蛋白的X射线晶体学数据进一步激发了布拉格的兴趣。

Bragg's interest was bolstered by the remarkable X-ray crystallography data on haemoglobin, obtained by Max Perutz.

第二次世界大战后，布拉格继续支持剑桥的晶体学研究，鼓励佩鲁茨和约翰·肯德鲁努力确定血红蛋白和肌红蛋白的结构。琼·布鲁姆黑德当时也在 X 射线晶体学领域工作，并且是卡文迪什实验室为数不多的女性之一。

Following the Second World War, Bragg continued to support crystallography at Cambridge, encouraging Perutz and John Kendrew in their efforts to determine the structure of haemoglobin and myoglobin. Also working in X-ray crystallography at the time, and one of very few women at the Cavendish Laboratory, was June Broomhead.

她测量腺嘌呤和胸腺嘧啶分子尺寸的工作对于破解 DNA 结构之谜至关重要，她的同事比尔·科克伦的理论研究也解释了单个螺旋产生的详细图像。

Her work measuring the dimensions of adenine and thymine molecules would be crucial to cracking the mystery of DNA’s structure, as would her colleague Bill Cochran’s theoretical research that explained the detailed images produced by a single helix.

朗厄尔教授说：“这些人以及其他人构成了这项实验工作的核心。他们都对你如何分析数据做出了非常重要的贡献。”

"These are the people, and there are others besides, who formed the core of this experimental work," said Prof Longair. "They were all contributing very significantly to how you analyse the data.

“值得注意的是，沃森和克里克都是理论家，他们没有进行任何产生X射线晶体学图像的实验，而是着手解释这些图像。还有很多人对这些成就做出了贡献，而晶体学研究就是其中一部分。

"A significant point is that Watson and Crick were both theorists, they didn’t do any of the experiments that resulted in the X-ray crystallography images, which they set about interpreting. There were lots of people who contributed to the knowledge of the size of the molecules that had to be fitted together, as they eventually were. They were working in one of the best places they could be to study the crystallographic work."

人们对生物样本的 X 射线可能揭示的东西兴趣激增，同时布拉格和加州理工学院化学教授莱纳斯·鲍林之间展开了激烈的个人竞争。因此，当布拉格得知鲍林已经非常接近DNA分子的结构时，他让克里克和沃森自由发挥，让他们继续自己的DNA研究。

There was a surge in interest in what X-rays of biological samples might uncover, and at the same time a strong personal competition between Bragg and Linus Pauling, professor of chemistry at Caltech. So when Bragg learned Pauling was getting very close to the structure of the DNA molecule he gave free rein to Crick and Watson to pursue their own work on DNA.

他们受益于伦敦国王学院X射线晶体学家莫里斯·威尔金斯和罗莎琳德·富兰克林的工作，并使用了富兰克林的图像，基本上是在她不知情的情况下。

They benefited from the work of X-ray crystallographers Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin at King’s College London, using Franklin’s images, essentially without her knowledge.

“所有数据都来自其他人，”朗吉尔教授说。“富兰克林是一位出色的实验者——她制作的结晶和非结晶状态DNA分子衍射图案的X射线图像比其他任何人都好。”

"All the data was coming from other people," said Prof Longair. "Franklin was a brilliant experimenter – she produced better X-ray images of the diffraction patterns of the DNA molecules in the crystalline and non-crystalline state than anyone else."

克里克和沃森利用这些数据推进了研究。

Crick and Watson took these data and moved the research forward.

朗厄尔教授说他们的才华是不可否认的。“他们是非常聪明的人，他们会解释晶体学家的发现，这本身就是一项伟大的技能，可以计算出这些模式并将它们转化为分子结构的图像。

Prof Longair said their talent was undeniable. "They were very bright people. They would interpret the findings of the crystallographers, which is itself a great skill, to work out these patterns and convert them into an image of the molecular structure.

“他们使用了所有的结构信息，并且非常幸运地发现如果将四个分子的两个碱基放在一起，就会发现它们是匹配的。然后你会看到这就是将两个螺旋连接在一起的原因——一对螺旋相互作用并由这些碱基对结合在一起。碱基对出现的顺序提供了遗传密码。”

"They used all the structural information and with a great piece of good luck, they found that if you put together the two bases of the four molecules, then you found they matched. And then you see that this is what holds together the two helixes – a pair of helixes interacting with each other and held together by these pairs of bases. And the order in which the base pairs appear gives you the genetic code."

收藏了罗莎琳德·富兰克林的论文的丘吉尔学院的院长、物理学家雅典娜·唐纳德教授说，这一发现的故事仍然吸引着人们的想象力，但对于新一代物理学家来说，故事已经发生了变化。

Physicist Professor Dame Athene Donald, Master of Churchill College, where Rosalind Franklin’s papers are archived, said the story of the discovery still captures the imagination, but that the narrative has changed for a new generation of physicists.

“罗莎琳德·富兰克林和其他人的关键作用现在已为人们所了解，我认为这个故事比25年前更流行，建筑物和奖品现在以她的名字命名。

"The crucial role of Rosalind Franklin and others is understood now, and I think that aspect of the story has far more currency than it did 25 years ago, with buildings and prizes now named in her honour. And I think that is maybe what people take away now as much as the science, the way women in the field were regarded back then.

“这一发现的重要性不言而喻，包括随之而来的其他成果，例如个性化医疗等。但我认为，因为我们现在知道了完整的故事，所以讲述起来可能比以前的版本更流行。”

"The importance of the discovery is taken as read, and everything else that has followed on from it, such as personalised medicine etc. But I think because we now know the full story, the narrative is perhaps more current than it used to be."

在这个发现之后，分子生物学的研究在剑桥呈指数增长，最终促成在剑桥生物医学园区创建了MRC分子生物学实验室。

After the discovery, work on molecular biology grew exponentially at Cambridge, eventually leading to the creation of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.

▲MRC分子生物学实验室
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology

“卡文迪什实验室已经挤满了人，”朗厄尔教授说。“剑桥任何一所空出来的大楼，都被物理系抢了过来！整个事情还在不断发展，这是一个接一个的成功故事。

"The Cavendish Laboratory was already jam-packed with people," said Prof Longair. "Any University building that became available in Cambridge, the Physics department just grabbed! The whole thing just grew and grew, and it was success story after success story.

“你要想到在那个时候，剑桥的所有X射线晶体学都是在一个几年前才被拆除的临时小屋中进行时，这真是令人难以置信。”

"It’s incredible when you think that up to then, all of the X-ray crystallography at Cambridge was being carried out in a tiny temporary hut, which was only demolished a couple of years ago."

朗厄尔教授说，对于今天的学生来说，在DNA突破70年后，这些科学家的工作仍然鼓舞人心。

Prof Longair said that for students today, 70 years after the DNA breakthrough, the work of these scientists is still inspiring.

“我不向学生讲述DNA的故事，因为它实际上是我试图教给学生的基础知识的应用。在教授物理时，我们有大量的技术知识要传授给学生。但一旦你谈论伟大的发现时，学生会面露喜色并说“我想加入到其中”。而这其中的挑战就是他们要通过自己的经验将数学和实验天分结合起来，并通过项目转移技术能力。这就是他们真正喜欢的地方。”

"I don’t teach the DNA story because it is really an application of the fundamentals I’m trying to teach them. In teaching physics, we have a huge amount of technical stuff to get through to them, but as soon as you do talk about the great discoveries, they light up and they say 'I want to be a part of that'. The challenge is to combine the mathematics and the experimental genius – the hands-on stuff, the 'real physics' - through their own experience, and transfer the technical ability through their project work. And that’s the bit they really love."