British Nobel laureate Professor Crick passed away on Wednesday 28 July 2004 at age 88 at the Thornton Hospital in San Diego, US. He had been battling colon cancer for some time.
Co-discoverer with American James Watson in 1953 of one of the most important scientific findings of the 20th century, the recognition of the spiral “double helix” structure of DNA molecule paving the way for everything from DNA blood tests to genetically engineered tomatoes. Modern genetic research began the moment Francis Crick walked into a pub in Cambridge, England, in 1953 and announced that he and James Watson had "found the secret of life."
When they discovered the spiral "double-helix" structure of DNA in 1953, few people paid much attention to the revolutionary scientific achievement that Francis Crick and James Watson had made. Crick shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with James Watson and Maurice Wilkins for their determination of the two-chain helical structure of DNA, the polymer from which genes are made.
The Bibliotheca Alexandrina, in collaboration with the British Council, is hosting the “DNA50” exhibition in the Exploratorium at the Planetarium Science Center from 1 July to 30 September 2004, as an interactive experience, telling the story of research and breakthroughs in the biosciences starting with the double helix discovery by Crick and Watson.
Famous words: (statement)
"We wish to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA). This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest."
Francis Crick shared in biology"s most important breakthrough - the discovery of the spiral double helix structure of DNA - then abruptly turned his back on genetics to study the brain and consciousness.