Celebration of what many regard as the greatest scientific achievement of the 20th century begins in Cambridge this week with the opening of a new exhibition at the Whipple Museum and the launch of the annual Darwin Lectures.

2003 marks the 50th anniversary of the proposals, by James Watson and Francis Crick, of the double helical structure of DNA and this exhibition explores visual representations of the double helix. The annual Darwin Lectures also take DNA as a theme this year to commemorate the anniversary.

The exhibition, entitled ‘Representations of the Double Helix’ shows the variety of uses of pictures and models of the double helix in scientific research, education, politics, law, commerce, art and popular culture, and highlights the many meanings that these images convey; from the celebratory to the threatening.

The exhibition includes a full-scale replica of the model built by Crick and Watson in 1953, which has long since fallen to pieces. It was commissioned especially for this exhibition and was created in the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, the successor of the Institution where the model was first presented.

Dr Soraya de Chadarevian, one of the curators of the exhibition at the Whipple Museum feels that the creation of this exhibition gives a greater insight into how the double helix image alone has permeated our everyday lives. She said:

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