Francis Harry Compton Crick Essay, Research Paper

Francis Crick. A name we’re all familiar with for his work with DNA. In keeping with the spirit of the architectonic, Crick has branched out beyond his original field of study. Crick has done some amazing work in other fields since his famous work with Watson in the 50’s. Most recently, Crick has begun to address the current hot topic in science: consciousness.

Though Crick may or may not make earth-shattering observations in his book, The Astonishing Hypothesis, he at least makes a concise, cogent presentation of the science of consciousness as it stands now.

Francis Harry Compton Crick was born on June 8th, 1916, at Northampton, England, being the elder child of Harry Crick and Annie Elizabeth Wilkins. He has one brother, A. F. Crick, who is a doctor in New Zealand.

Crick was educated at Northampton Grammar School and Mill Hill School, London. He studied physics at University College, London, obtained a B.Sc. in 1937, and started research for a Ph.D. under Prof. C. Andrade, but this was interrupted by the outbreak of war in 1939. During the war he worked as a scientist for the British Admiralty, mainly in connection with magnetic and acoustic mines. He left the Admiralty in 1947 to study biology.

Supported by a studentship from the Medical Research Council and with some financial help from his family, Crick went to Cambridge and worked at the Strangeways Research Laboratory. In 1949 he joined the Medical Research Council Unit headed by M. F. Perutz of which he has been a member ever since. This Unit was for many years housed in the Cavendish Laboratory Cambridge, but in 1962 moved into a large new building – the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology – on the New Hospital site. He became a research student for the second time in 1950, being accepted as a member of Caius College, Cambridge, and obtained a Ph.D. in 1954 on a thesis entitled X-ray diffraction: polypeptides and proteins+.

During the academic year 1953-1954 Crick was on leave of absence at the Protein Structure Project of the Brooklyn Polytechnic in Brooklyn, New York. He has also lectured at Harvard, as a Visiting Professor, on two occasions, and has visited other laboratories in the States for short periods.

In 1947 Crick knew no biology and practically no organic chemistry or crystallography, so that much of the next few years was spent in learning the elements of these subjects.

During this period, together with W. Cochran and V. Vand he worked out the general theory of X-ray diffraction by a helix, and at the same time as L. Pauling and R. B. Corey, suggested that the alpha-keratin pattern was due to alpha-helices coiled round each other.

A critical influence in Crick’s career was his friendship, beginning in 1951, with J. D. Watson, then a young man of 23, leading in 1953 to the proposal of the double-helical structure for DNA and the replication scheme. Crick and Watson subsequently suggested a general theory for the structure of small viruses.

Crick in collaboration with A. Rich has proposed structures for polyglycine II and collagen and (with A. Rich, D. R. Davies, and J. D.Watson) a structure for polyadenylic acid.

In recent years Crick, in collaboration with S. Brenner, has concentrated more on biochemistry and genetics leading to ideas about protein synthesis (the adaptor hypothesis+), and the genetic code, and in particular to work on acridine-type mutants.

Crick was made an F.R.S. in 1959. He was awarded the Prix Charles Leopold Meyer of the French Academy of Sciences in 1961, and the Award of Merit of the Gairdner Foundation in 1962. Together with J. D. Watson he was a Warren Triennial Prize Lecturer in 1959 and received a Research Corporation Award in 1962. With J. D. Watson and M. H. F. Wilkins he was presented with a Lasker Foundation Award in 1960. In 1962 he was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of University College, London. He was a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, in 1960-1961, and is now a non-resident Fellow of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego, California.

In 1940 Crick married Ruth Doreen Dodd. Their son, Michael F. C. Crick is a scientist. They were divorced in 1947. In 1949 Crick married Odile Speed. They have two daughters, Gabrielle A. Crick and Jacqueline M. T. Crick. The family lives in a house appropriately called The Golden Helix+, in which Crick likes to find his recreation in conversation with his friends.

Terms

adenine- a nitrogen-containing base found in DNA molecules. Pairs with thymine.

base pair- two bases, each containing the element nitrogen, held together by relatively weak chemical bonds. Two base pairs make up DNA molecules: adenine and thymine, and guanine and cytosine.

Chargaff’s rules- named for biochemist Erwin Chargaff, these rules describe the relationship of the amounts of the four nitrogenous bases which are found in DNA molecules. Specifically, Chargaff’s rules state that the amount of adenine equals the amount of thymine, and that the amount of guanine equals the amount of cytosine in any DNA molecule.

cytosine- a nitrogen-containing base found in DNA molecules. Pairs with guanine.

deoxyribonucleic acid- also known as “DNA.” The molecule which contains the hereditary information of most living organisms. This information is encoded in the sequence of bases arrayed along the length of the DNA molecule. DNA is a double helix, coiled around a central axis. The DNA backbones are composed of alternating sugar and phosphate subunits, while the interior portion of the molecule is composed of pairs of nitrogenous bases. The helix has a radius of 1 nm, and completes one 360 degree turn every 3.4 nm. The base pairs are 0.34 nm apart from each other. The two strands which make up the DNA molecule are anti-parallel–that is they run in opposite directions from each other.

genetic code – the arrangement of nucleotides, arranged in triplets known as “codons,” which determines the identity and sequence of the amino acids which are used during protein synthesis. The “code” used to translate genetic information contained in the DNA molecule into a gene product.

guanine – a nitrogen-containing base found in DNA molecules. Pairs with cytosine.

isomers – a pair of chemical compounds composed of the same atomic subunits, and with the same molecular weight, but with different chemical or physical properties, and a different arrangement of component atoms in space.

macromolecule – a very large molecule made up of smaller subunits. Biological macromolecules include polysaccharides, nucleic acids, and proteins.

molecular biology – the branch of biology concerned with the structure and development of biological systems in terms of the biochemistry of their molecular components. Molecular biology overlaps a wide variety of other disciplines in use of molecular techniques e.g. PCR, RFLP analysis, etc.

neurobiology – the branch of biology concerned with the structure and function of cells of the nervous system.

tautomer – a molecule which can convert relatively easily from one isomeric form to another.

thymine – a nitrogen-containing base found in DNA molecules. Pairs with adenine.

vitalism – the idea that life processes have a component entirely separate from the constraints of the laws of natural science.

X-ray crystallography – a technique which allows elucidation of the structure of macromolecules. In this technique, an X-ray beam is passed through a crystal of a particular substance. The atoms which make up the crystal cause the X-rays to be deflected. This deflection pattern is directly dependent on the structure of the molecule being analyzed, and can thus be used to help determine the molecular structure.