Odile Crick, the artist who in 1953 first sketched the double helix of DNA, died earlier this month. She was 86. Odile Crick was the wife of Francis Crick who, with James Watson, discovered the structure of DNA. From the New York Times:
In a brief interview on Thursday, Dr. Watson recalled why he and his colleague had asked Mrs. Crick to make the original black-and-white sketch – based on their mathematical analysis of a pattern of spots revealed by a process called X-ray crystallography – for the April 1953 issue of the journal Nature.
"Francis can't draw, and I can't draw, and we need something done quick," Dr. Watson said. The drawing "showed the essence of the structure," he said. "And it became historically important, reproduced over and over."
UPDATE: Readers ask that we not forget the oft-uncredited contributions of Rosalind Franklin to the DNA discovery. Link
