At the 50-year celebrations, in April 2003, of James Watson and Francis Crick's proposal of the double-helical structure
of DNA, one image will be hard to avoid: the photograph of the two
researchers staged left and right of their Meccano-like model. The black-and-white image comes in two versions. One picture shows Crick with a slide rule in his hand pointing up toward the model. In the other (slightly less staged) version of the picture, the arm has moved down, and instead of gazing at their model, Watson and Crick half-face each other and the viewer, laughing. Although both images are in wide circulation, the second one is reproduced somewhat less frequently (some refer to it as the "lesser" print in contrast to the "true" or "classic" picture).
The pictures, taken 50 years ago by Cambridge photographer Antony Barrington Brown in the Cavendish Laboratory, have come to symbolize the Nobel Prize- winning
achievement of the two researchers and its far-reaching impact, as well as scientific achievement more generally. The restaging of the classic photograph, nearly 40 years later, with Watson and Crick adopting the same poses, bears testimony to the iconic status of the image .