“. . . will be published elsewhere.”

This paper is short because it was intended only to announce Watson and Crick’s discovery, and because they were in a competitive situation. In January 1954, they published the “full details” of their work in a longer paper (in Proceedings of the Royal Society). This “expound later” approach was usual in science in the 1950s as it continues to be. In fact, Rosalind Franklin did the same thing, supplementing her short April 25 paper with two longer articles.

Today, scientists publish their results in a variety of formats. They also present their work at conferences. Watson reported his and Crick’s results at the prestigious annual symposium at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in June 1953. As part of our recognition of the fiftieth anniversary of the double helix discovery, we will join scientists at Cold Spring Harbor as they present their papers at the “Biology of DNA” conference.

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