Francis Crick

Biology English 1916 – 2004 386 quotes

Co-discovered DNA structure, central dogma of biology

Quotes by Francis Crick

Our minds, our brains, are the most complicated things in the universe. We can't expect to understand them without a lot of hard work.

The Astonishing Hypothesis: Scientific Search for the Soul 1994

The most important thing is to try and not make too many mistakes.

What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery 1988

If you want to do original work, you have to be prepared to make mistakes.

What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery 1988

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.

Attributed, though often misattributed to Darwin

A man who is not a scientist and who has not made a scientific discovery can hardly be expected to understand the emotional impact of a scientific discovery.

What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery 1988

The ultimate aim of the modern movement in biology is in fact to explain all biology in terms of physics and chemistry.

Of Molecules and Men 1966

The Astonishing Hypothesis is that 'You,' your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.

The Astonishing Hypothesis: Scientific Search for the Soul 1994

The more we know about the brain, the more we realize that it is a machine.

The Astonishing Hypothesis: Scientific Search for the Soul 1994

The genetic code is a dictionary that relates the sequence of nucleotides in DNA to the sequence of amino acids in proteins.

Of Molecules and Men 1966

We have discovered the secret of life.

Letter to his son, Michael 1953

If you are a young scientist, you should not be afraid to tackle big problems.

What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery 1988

The brain is a machine, and it is a very complicated machine.

The Astonishing Hypothesis: Scientific Search for the Soul 1994

The central dogma of molecular biology states that information flows from DNA to RNA to protein, but not in the reverse direction.

Nature 1970

The most striking thing about the genetic code is its universality.

Of Molecules and Men 1966

The brain is a computer, but it's a very special kind of computer.

The Astonishing Hypothesis: Scientific Search for the Soul 1994

The human brain is the most complex piece of machinery in the known universe.

The Astonishing Hypothesis: Scientific Search for the Soul 1994

The genetic code is degenerate, meaning that more than one codon can specify the same amino acid.

Of Molecules and Men 1966

The brain is not a general-purpose computer; it's a highly specialized computer.

The Astonishing Hypothesis: Scientific Search for the Soul 1994

The genetic code is unambiguous, meaning that each codon specifies only one amino acid.

Of Molecules and Men 1966

The brain is a biological machine, and it operates according to the laws of physics and chemistry.

The Astonishing Hypothesis: Scientific Search for the Soul 1994