Final answer:
Watson and Crick published their groundbreaking paper on the structure of DNA in 1953 in Nature, which led to them sharing the Nobel Prize in 1962 along with Wilkins.
Step-by-step explanation:
James Watson and Francis Crick published their now-famous paper entitled "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" in 1953, in the journal Nature. This work was groundbreaking in detailing the double helix structure of DNA and proposed a semi-conservative mechanism of replication, building upon prior research by scientists such as Rosalind Franklin and Erwin Chargaff.
Their completed model of DNA also integrated X-ray diffraction data from Franklin and Maurice Wilkins, providing key insights into how DNA encodes and passes information to the next generation. Their achievements substantially advanced the field of molecular biology and they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962, along with Maurice Wilkins.