Francis Crick
Discoverer of the Genetic Code
“A vivid portrait that explains Crick’s scientific work with clarity, deftly outlines his careerm and provides sharp insights into the nature of Crick’s remarkable creativity.” —New York Times
Francis Crick, who died at the age of eighty-eight in 2004, will be bracketed with Galileo, Darwin, and Einstein. In 1953, Crick and his colleague James Watson revolutionized biology by discovering the double-helix structure of DNA. By 1966, Crick had finally cracked DNA’s four-letter alphabet, and the elegant simplicity of his discovery remains remarkable even today. In this first biography of Francis Crick, Matt Ridley traces his career from his seemingly less-than-brilliant student years through the emergence of the world-renowned scientist.
“[An] excellent first biography of Francis Crick . . . the suspense is terrific.” —The Times (London)