The structure of DNA was discovered by James Watson and Francis Crick. In 1953, they proposed the double helix structure of DNA based on their analysis of X-ray diffraction images obtained by Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins. The discoveries made by Watson, Crick, and Wilkins in 1962 on the molecular structure of nucleic acids and their importance for information transfer in living things earned them the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.