Francis Harry Compton Crick (1916–2004) was a British molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist best known for co-discovering DNA’s double-helix structure with James Watson in 1953. This breakthrough revolutionized genetics and earned them the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1962.)
Born in Northampton, England, Crick studied physics at University College London, but his studies were interrupted by World War II, during which he contributed to military research. After the war, inspired by Erwin Schrödinger’s What Is Life?, he shifted to molecular biology, joining the Medical Research Council Unit at Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, where he collaborated with Watson and Maurice Wilkins to determine DNA’s structure.
His later research explored neurobiology and consciousness, studying how the brain processes information. Notable books include Of Molecules and Men (1966,) Life Itself: Its Origin and Nature (1981,) and The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul (1994,) examining the biological basis of consciousness.
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It is not easy to convey, unless one has experienced it, the dramatic feeling of sudden enlightenment that floods the mind when the right idea finally clinches into place.
—Francis Crick
Topics: Ideas
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