Francis Crick — "The purpose of science is to make the mysterious obvious."
The purpose of science is to make the mysterious obvious.
Get This Quote & Author's Image Illustrated On:
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
Kitchen
Apparel
Other
More from Francis Crick
"The brain is the most complex thing in the universe."
"It is notoriously difficult to get rid of a really bad idea."
"The scientific method is a powerful tool, but it is not the only way to understand the world."
"No important discovery is ever made without a 'mad' guess."
"The brain is a machine that makes theories."
Verification
Unverifiable
Found in 1 providers: grok
1 source checked
Understanding this quote
What it means
Science strips away confusion from natural phenomena and replaces it with clear, testable explanations. What once seemed magical or inexplicable — lightning, disease, heredity — becomes understood through evidence and mechanism. The goal isn't to diminish wonder but to convert it into knowledge. When science works, the formerly baffling seems almost self-evident in retrospect. Understanding doesn't kill mystery; it relocates it to the next frontier.
Relevance to Francis Crick
Crick spent his career demystifying life's deepest puzzle: how genetic information is stored and transmitted. The double helix (1953, with Watson) turned heredity from a black box into an elegant chemical mechanism. He later attacked consciousness using the same reductionist conviction, arguing the mind would yield to molecular explanation. His entire trajectory embodied this belief — no phenomenon, however profound, was beyond the reach of empirical science.
The era
Crick worked during the mid-20th-century molecular biology revolution, when science rapidly converted ancient mysteries into solved problems. DNA structure (1953), the genetic code (cracked by 1966), and the central dogma transformed life from something mystical into something mechanistic. Cold War funding, the space race, and nuclear physics had made scientific explanation culturally dominant, reinforcing the conviction that no natural phenomenon was ultimately beyond human understanding.
AI-generated insights based on extensive research and information for context. Factual errors? Email [email protected].