Portrait of a Discovery
Watson, Crick, and the Double Helix
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7830481 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Soraya De Chadarevian (0000-0002-4360-7203, University of Cambridge, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 94 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 90-105 |
| Publication date | 2003-03-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Isis (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-1753 • E-ISSN: 1545-6994 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/376100 |
| PMID | 12725105 |
| OpenAlex | W1552192835 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 16 |
This essay examines an iconic image of twentieth-century science: Antony Barrington Brown's photograph of James Watson, Francis Crick, and the double-helical model of DNA. The detailed reconstruction of the production, reception, and uses of the photograph reveals the central role of the image in making the discovery it portrays. Taken in May 1953, two full months after the scientists built the model, to accompany a report on the structure in Time magazine, the photograph (like the report) was never published. It came into circulation only fifteen years later, as an illustration in Watson's best-selling book The Double Helix. While the image served as a historical document and advertisement for the book, only the book provided the description that made the image as well as the people and the model it represented famous. The history of the image provides insights into the retrospective construction of the discovery, which has since been celebrated as the origin of a new science of life
Art · Art history · Character (mathematics · Portrait · Watson · Artificial Intelligence · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Computer Science · History · History of Science and Natural History · Science Education and Perceptions
| Citations per year | 0.22 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2003 - 2024 (22) |
| Highly cited | No |