The Great DNA Heist

The greatest scientific heist of the 20th century! Franklin's X-ray crystallography images of DNA (Photo 51) were secretly shown to Watson and Crick without her knowledge, helping them beat her to publishing the double helix structure. The Soviet Bugs Bunny perfectly captures how Watson and Crick swooped in with their "OUR research" communist meme energy while Franklin, who did the critical experimental work, got historically sidelined. Textbook definition of academic theft wrapped in a Cold War joke. The Nobel Prize committee then twisted the knife by not awarding her posthumously because... *checks notes*... dead people can't win Nobels. Scientific karma eventually prevailed though—Franklin is now recognized as the unsung hero who actually made the discovery possible.