Francis Harry Crick (1916–2004): Co-discoverer of the structure of DNA

摘要

When Thomas Hardy wrote about heredity, nothing was known about its molecular basis. In 1953, two brilliant scientists, James Watson and Francis Crick, discovered the DNA double helix and, in the process, transformed science and ushered in the era of the gene. Francis Harry Crick was born in 1916 in Northampton, England, into a family that ran a shoe factory. He attended University College London, receiving his Bachelor of Science in 1937 with a major in physics. Initially, he undertook graduate work, studying the viscosity of water at high temperatures, a topic he would later refer to as “the dullest problem imaginable”. His studies were literally interrupted by World War II when, in 1939, a bomb went through the roof of his laboratory and damaged his experimental setup. Unable to continue, he embarked on military research on magnetic and acoustic mines for the British Admiralty. He was so skilled at his job that he was offered a position of leadership in the military, but he rejected this in favour of biological research.