From the BBC News online:
The story goes that on 28 February 1953, Francis Crick walked into the Eagle pub in Cambridge and announced that he and his American colleague James Watson "had found the secret of life". In fact, they had.That morning, Crick and Watson had worked out the structure of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). They had discovered its "double helix" form, one which could replicate itself, confirming theories that it carried life's hereditary information.
It was a revolutionary discovery, the most significant contribution to science, in the view of many, since Darwin's theory of evolution. It earned Crick and Watson a Nobel Prize.
Francis Crick was 38 and didn't even have a PhD. His studies had been interrupted by World War II during which he helped develop torpedoes for the Royal Navy.
Got that? A man without a PhD had found the secret of life. Was it the most significant contribution to science since Darwin's theory of evolution? I leave that to those more qualified to judge--but for discovering something so fundamental, so essential to knowledge of what life is, I'm glad that Dr. Crick became well-known and admired. He deserved at least that.
"We were lucky with DNA", he once said. "Like America, it was just waiting to be discovered."
Yes, Dr. Crick. It was. But you discovered it. Thank you, and may you rest in peace.
(Hat tip: Arts and Letters Daily)
Posted by Craig Ceely at July 31, 2004 04:51 PM