This
is a photograph of Francis Crick (seated) and James Watson having coffee
at the Cavendish Lab of Cambridge University, one morning in 1952.
This was the original model of the B form of DNA built by Watson and Crick. The nitrogenous bases, which fill the center of the hollow tube formed by the sugar phosphate backbone, are not seen very well because they are very flat and planar. In fact they were constructed by flattening tin cans and cutting them up with tin snips!
Because of its vast importance in the history of science, this model would be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to collectors today. Unfortunately nobody seems to know what happened to it ......... the best guess is that it was thrown out in the trash in the late 1950's!
This photograph shows Francis Crick pointing to their model of DNA. He is using a slide rule as a pointer, which they used to calculate the atomic distances between the bases and the base pairs. James Watson is standing to the lower left. In this photograph he looks retarded, but he is actually a brilliant, if somewhat overbearing, man.
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