James Watson and Francis Crick determined the structure of DNA in 1953, using the X ray crystallography work of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins that indicated DNA had a helical structure (i.e., shaped like a corkscrew).

For example, in the liver they form channels to detoxify the blood in the lung they line air sacs for gas exchange in muscle they corkscrew so that muscles can contract without cutting off circulation and in nerves they course along like power lines, keeping those nerves alive.