Francis Crick: biography and contributions of this physicist and biochemist.

A summary of the life of Francis Crick, Nobel Prize-winning physicist, neuroscientist and biochemist.

Francis Crick was trained in different fields of science.He was a British physicist, molecular biologist and neuroscientist.

He is known for his important contribution to Molecular Biology, and in general to the field of science, for the discovery and approach of the model of the structure of the double helix of the deoxyribonucleic acid molecule (DNA), discovery made in collaboration with James Watson and Maurice Wilkins, which helped them to win and be recognized with the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physics in 1962.

He also made important contributions to the study and knowledge of consciousness and visual perception, proposing the frequency of transmission of images from the retina to the brain.

In this biography of Francis Crick we will see the most relevant facts and events in the life of this scientist.

Brief biography of Francis Crick

Francis Harry Compton Crick was born in Northampton in the United Kingdom on June 8, 1916.. He was the eldest son of Harry Crick, who worked in a shoe factory, and Anne Elizabeth Wilkins. His family was religious, and as a child he attended the Congregationalist church, although when he turned 12 years old he told his mother that he preferred not to continue attending, since from an early age he was already interested in science, not showing affinity to any religion.

He was a pupil at Northampton Grammar School, and given his good grades at the end of school, at the age of 14, he received a scholarship that allowed him to study Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry at Mill Hill School, a boarding school.

Eventually he decided to study physics, but was not accepted at Cambridge University, so he enrolled as a student at University College LondonHe was not accepted at Cambridge University, so he enrolled as a student at University College London, a public university, which welcomes students of any race, political or religious beliefs.

In 1937, at the age of 21, he graduated from the University and began to conduct research for his Ph.D. thesis on measuring the viscosity of water at high temperatures. He carried out the study and experiments in the laboratory of the physicist Adward Neville da Costa Andrade, although the development of his doctoral thesis was affected by the outbreak of World War II, when the laboratory where he was doing his research was destroyed by a bomb explosion.

During the period of World War II between 1939 and 1945 he worked as a military physicist for the British Royal Navy, with the purpose of creating magnetic and acoustic submarine mines that could not be detected by the German army.

The war would mark a before and after in Crick's training and research, as he would not resume his work as a physicist.He did not resume his doctorate in physics, but this time he became interested in other branches of science such as biology and chemistry. So in 1947 he began to study Biology, given his previous training in Physics, he could be aware of the great achievements of this, it helped him to have a more open mind and a more positive and daring attitude towards the possible advances in the field of Biology.

Consolidation of her professional life

Thus, Francis Crick entered into the study and Biological research, working for two years at the Cambridge Strangeways Laboratory, where he investigated the physical properties of the cytoplasm of the cytoplasm. he investigated the properties and physical characteristics of the cytoplasmThe cytoplasm, a liquid of gelatinous texture in which the organelles of cells are found.

Later she moved to the Cavendish Laboratory also in Cambridge, investigating together with the chemists Max Perutz and John Kendrew under the direction of Lawrence Bragg, physicist awarded with the Nobel Prize of Physics in 1915 for his contributions to the crystallography of X-rays, experiment that has as purpose the study and analysis of the materials.

The stage of her major contributions to genetics

The laboratory led by Bragg was competing for the discovery of the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, with both the physicist and biophysicist John Randall, who had not accepted Crick in his laboratory, and with the chemist and biochemist Linus Pauling, who had pointed out the alpha-helix structure of proteins.who had not accepted Crick in his laboratory, and with the chemist and biochemist Linus Pauling, the latter of whom had pointed out the alpha-helix structure of proteins.

Likewise, in 1951 Francis Crick began to devote all his time and effort to the study of the structure of the DNA molecule, considered very important in the transmission of hereditary information in cells, together with the biochemist James Dewey Watson and the biophysicist Maurice Wilkins, who had obtained images of large molecules using the X-ray crystallography technique.

Thus, after two years, on April 25, 1953 Crick and Watson published in the journal Nature their discovery of the three-dimensional helical structure of DNAThe first of its kind, using the analysis of genetic competencies carried out with the X-ray crystallography technique by the chemist Rosalind Franklin and the knowledge that Crick had in biology and Watson in crystallography.

Thus, in 1962 Francis Crick received, together with James Watson and Maurice Wilkins, the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for their important discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. Unfortunately Rosalind Franklin, who we have already seen that she also contributed with her contributions in genetic crystallography, could not receive the prize since she had died 4 years earlier at the age of 37 due to ovarian cancer.

Thus, a model was a model was proposed in which reference was made to the physical and chemical properties of deoxyribonucleic acidwhich is made up of 4 nitrogenous bases called adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine. The three-dimensional structure of DNA is in the form of a double helix made up of pairs of nitrogenous bases: adenine is linked to thiamine and cytosine to guanine. This gives rise to a genetic code that makes it possible to identify and differentiate each person.

In the same way, the double helix structure allows the DNA to be copied to generate other nucleic acid chains, DNA and RNA.. On the basis of this discovery, Crick and Watson focused on research into the encryption of the deoxyribonucleic acid molecule, a study that lasted until 1966.

Outside the field of research, in 1963 the Order of the British Empire offered him the recognition of being knighted, but in this case Francis did not accept and rejected the proposal.

Given the great relevance of his discovery, also received in 1972 the Royal Medal awarded annually by the Royal Society of London to scientists who have made important contributions to the advancement of natural knowledge. who have made important contributions to the advancement of natural knowledge.

His move to the United States

In 1973, already in the United States, he began to work in the Salk Institute for Biological StudiesThe Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the name given to a complex of laboratories, considered a world reference in the world of biology, located at the University of San Diego in the State of California.

It was during this period when focused on neurosciencespecifically in the study and research of the brain, making important contributions to the knowledge of consciousness and the transmission of images from the retina of the brain, the function of visual perception.

Three years later, in 1976, he began his work as a professor at the University of San Diego. In 1995 his health weakenedThis led him to decide to leave his position as president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

F. Crick also published several works: Of Molecules and Men in 1967, where he refers to the molecular biological revolution that was taking place at that time; Life ItSelf in 1981, where he discusses the nature of life from a scientific point of view; What mad pursuit: A personal View of scientific Discovery in 1988, where he talks about the work done on the proposed structure of DNA and the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology and finally The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search For The Soul in 1994, where he presents consciousness as a central theme.

Final years and death

It should be noted that in 1991 the Queen of England awarded him the Order of Merit of the United Kingdom for his services to the field of science. for his services to the field of science.

Finally, Francis Crick died on July 28, 2004 at Thornton Hospital of the University of San Diego, California, at the age of 88 from colon cancer.