DNA discovery could have been earlier if not for ‘mistaken decision’ by Rosalind Franklin

Instead, she focused on DNA-A, which forms a more compact and complex helix and so is harder to understand from x-ray diffraction patterns used to image the molecule.

In a letter to the Times newspaper, Mrs Glynn said: "Because the A form gave clearer diffraction patterns she concentrated first on that form with hindsight that was a mistaken decision.

"But a letter (discovered in 2010) written by Francis Crick to Maurice Wilkins in June 1953 suggests that, in Rosalinds situation, Crick might have taken the same decision: This is the first time I have had an opportunity for a detailed study of the picture of Structure A, and I must say I am glad I didnt see it earlier, as it would have worried me considerably.

Mrs Glynn was responding to criticism levelled at her sister by James Watson, one of the Cambridge University scientists who wrote the paper that first proposed DNA's helical structure.

Speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival last week, Dr Watson accused Dr Franklin of failing to understand the significance of her work and for sitting on her findings for eight months.

He said: "I thought she shouldn't get a prize for being wrong, stubborn and not getting the answer.

"Her own manuscript has the date March 17, 1953, when she concluded DNA was two chains twisted around each other.

"That was more than two weeks after we'd found the answer.

"And when I had seen her at the end of January she got angry when I sad that DNA was helical ... I thought she might hit me."

Franklin's manuscript was eventually published in the same issue of Nature as Watson and Crick's. Her colleague at Kings College London, Maurice Wilkins, was invited by Watson and Crick to add his name to their paper.

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DNA discovery could have been earlier if not for 'mistaken decision' by Rosalind Franklin