A TRIBUTE TO FRANCIS HARRY COMPTON CRICK ON HIS BIRTH ... Dhrubajyoti... · 1953.Watson and Crick published a paper on this in Nature, April 25, 1953 issue. Watson, Crick, and Wilkins

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A TRIBUTE TO FRANCIS HARRY COMPTON CRICKON HIS BIRTH CENTENARY

DHRUBAJYOTI CHATTOPADHYAY*

ARTICLE

*Education Officer, North Bengal Science Centre, P.O.-MatigaraSiliguri, Dist.- Darjeeling. Pin.- 734010, email : [email protected]

What a great adventure!At theage of thirty one a physicalscience researcher shifted to

Biological field. It was not that he wasleast interested in physics rather the factwas, during the World War II he workedfor the Admiralty doing mostly researchand design on magnetic and acousticmines, when profession was his passion.After that he suddenly changed his mindset up.In his famous book What MadPursuit: A Personal View of ScientificDiscovery, he wrote how at that stage hechanged his scientific career:- “Quickly Inarrowed down my interests to two mainareas: the borderline between the livingand the nonliving, and the workings of thebrain. Further introspection showed methat what these two subjects had incommon was that they touched on problems which, in manycircles, seemed beyond the power of science to explain.”It had long been known that one inherit traits from hisparents, but no one had any good idea how his father’sskin colour or his mother’s eye colour were encoded ininvisibly small molecules even fifty years back. Thankslargely to the work of Francis Crick and his circle offriends. He along with other researchers worked out themolecular basis of that inheritance character- the structureof DNA. The year 2016 is the birth centenary of FrancisHarry Compton Crick and this article is to tribute him.

Francis Crick was born on 8th June 1916 and grownup in Weston Favell, a small village near the famous town

Northampton in England. He was the first son of HarryCrick and Annie Elizabeth Crick. X chromosome of Francissuppoced to come from Annie Elizabeth Wilkins was theelder daughter of F. W. Wilkins, a gentlemen’s outfitter.To track the Y chromosome of Francis it is required totrace what traits he had inherited from there. Francis’sgreat-grandfather Charles Crick was a fairly prosperousfarmer, owner of a large farm nearly 231 acres at Pindon.His second son Walter Drawbridge Crick, grandfather ofFrancis, bisected himself from the track of his father’s farmand took a job as a clerk in the goods department ofLondon and Northwestern Railway. Suddenly he switchedto working as a travelling salesman for a shoemaker andnext started his own boot and shoe factory. The businessthrived and expanded even up to Madras in India. ThoughWalter’s enthusiasm was for shoes but his passion was for

Crick With his son Michael

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science, and for collecting - fossils, books, stamps, coins,porcelain, and furniture. At the age of 47 Walter Crickdied of a heart attack, leaving the firm (?) in the hands ofhis widow, Sarah and two of his four sons, Walter andHarry, who carried on the business until it failed duringthe Depression. Walter Crick, uncle of Franc, lived in asmall house on the south side of Abington Avenue; he hada shed at the bottom of his little garden where he taughtFranc to blow glass, do chemical experiments and to makephotographic prints. At an early age, Francis was attractedto science and what he could learn is from books. It is notsurprising to see that a child Francis preferred scientificsearch for answers over religious belief than attendingchurch. The traits he inherited through his Y chromosomewere enough to make him a genius one.

When Francis was about eight or nine years old hewas admitted in the junior section of NorthamptonGrammar School. It was about 1.25 km from his homeand he liked to walk rather to go by bus. At the age of 14,he was admitted at Mill Hill School in London, as a scholarand boarder, to study mathematics, physics, and chemistry.There he shared the Walter Knox Prize for Chemistry. Bythe age of sixteen he had passed the Higher Certificateexams, gaining a distinction in physics, but stayed on afurther two years. Failing to win a scholarship at eitherCambridge or Oxford, he was accepted into the physicscourse at University College London. From UniversityCollege London, Crick earned his Bachelor of Sciencedegree in physics at the age of 21. Though he was excellentin other subjects but could not qualify in Latin. Crick beganhis Ph.D. research project on measuring viscosity of waterat high temperatures under the guidance of Edward Nevilleda Costa Andrade in the laboratory of University College,London. During his second year as a PhD student, however,he was awarded the prestigions Carey Foster ResearchPrize. But the outbreak of World War II deflected Crickfrom a possible career in physics, in particular, an incidentduring the Battle of Britain when a bomb fell through theroof of the laboratory and destroyed his experimentalapparatus.

During World War II, six thousand scientists wereselected as civilian scientists to support the armedforces;Crick was one of them. In 1940, he beganing workat the Admiralty Research Laboratory on the outskirts ofLondon. In 1942, he became a member of five-man teamof physicists and mathematicians to work to revitalize theRoyal Navy’s mine design program and sent to Havantasin charge of the design of mine-firing mechanisms. Heworked on the design of magnetic and acoustic mines, andwas instrumental in designing a new mine that was effective

against German minesweepers. Crick displayed imaginationand skillful planning in challenging the enemy’s use ofmines as offensive weapons. Crick’s performance in thiswork earned respect of his seniors.

After the end of war Crick returned to London, hefelt dissatisfied with military research and decided to makea change. Crick himself described this transition as, “almostas if one had to be born again.” According to Crick physicshad taught him something important—hubris—theconviction that since physics has demonstrated such asuccess, great advances should also be possible in othersciences. This consiction probably led him towards biology.Crick felt that being a physicist, biology will be moredaring to him than to typical biologists to tacale dauntingproblems of biology.

Initially Crick opted for the Biophysics departmentof King’s College, London to work under Sir John Randallbut Randall had refused his application. So he joined atthe Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge which was alsoeffectively competing with King’s College London. At thattime, youngest Nobel laureate of physics Sir LawrenceBragg was the director of that laboratory. Cricks ambitionwas to learn the art of X-ray crystallography in order tostudy the structure of proteins and after two years’ hardwork his wish to study the structure of proteins wasgranted. In 1949, he moved to the MRC Unit for the Studyof the Molecular Structure of Biological Systems inCambridge University’s Cavendish Laboratory. In the meantime Crick had mastered the application of Fourier theoryto the data of x-ray diffraction patterns.In Cambridge hisfirst achievement was the interpretation of X -ray data usingFourier theory which were being used by his bosses, SirLawrence Bragg and Max Perutz, in their brave attempt tofind the structure of hemoglobin. Now he possessed anunrivaled insight into the strengths and limitations of X-ray crystallography and became interested to know aboutDNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid), the basic hereditarymaterial.

In 1951, famous chemist Linus Pauling published hisalpha helix model of the amino acid using X-raycrystallography. According to him it was a “stochasticmethod,” in molecular model building which makes Crickmore curious about DNA. During that time a youngAmerican James D. Watson who was ten years younger toCrick, joined Cambridge and became collaborator ofCrick in DNA research. But their attempt had proved afiasco and had caused the ire of Professor Bragg. In 1952Pauling had published triple-stranded DNA model whichinfluenced Bragg very much. In February 1953 he permittedWatson and Crick to make a second attempt. In the middle

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of March Watson and Crick deduced the double helixstructure of DNA. Many people believed that they had usedthe experimental data collected mainly by Rosalind Franklinwithout her permission. They have also used the data ofWilkins with proper acknowledgement. Sir Lawrence Bragg,the director of the Cavendish Laboratory announced thediscovery of double helix structure of DNA by Crick andWatson in a seminar held in Belgium on April 8,1953.Watson and Crick published a paper on this in Nature,April 25, 1953 issue. Watson, Crick, and Wilkins wereawarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962for their research on the structure of nucleic acids.However, Rosalind Franklin remained unsung due to lackof proper acknowledgment or for being ineligible fornomination for Nobel as she died in 1958. The publicationof the double helix structure of DNA can be regarded asone of the most important discoveries of 20th century anda turning point in science. From that time humanunderstanding of life was fundamentally changed and themodern era of biology began, Crick was one of the pioneersof that era.

After the success of “double helix” model, Crick andsome of his fellow scientists, including James Watson,started working to solve the riddle of RNA structure, andto understand the way it builds proteins. In the year 1962,Crick became director of Molecular Biology Laboratory

of Cambridge University. At Cambridge, he wrote hisfamous book Of Molecules and Men, detailing thebiochemistry revolution at that time. But after 25 years ofservice at Cambridge, Crick, who was then about 60 yearsold, suddenly decided to quit England and accepted a postat the Salk Institute, La Jolla, California. Though Crickhad not commented anything on this decision but most ofthe people believed that the reason for emigration wasentirely financial. Dr. Perutz, one of his colleagues told“He was very happy here, and but for the worry that hemight have been short of money when he retired, I amsure he would have stayed.”

At Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Crick’s interestturned to neuroscience and he began to think about theworkings of the brain. His approach to the brain focusedon perception, particularly visual perception. In 1988, hewrote about his experiences in What Mad Pursuit: APersonal View of Scientific Discovery.

On 28th July 2004 Crick died in Thornton Hospital,due to colon cancer. As per his wish he was cremated andhis ash were scattered into the Pacific Ocean. A publicmemorial was arranged at the Salk Institute on 27th

September 2004. Among many renowned speakers oneIndian Vilayanur Ramachandran was present there as aspeaker.The death of Francis Crick deprives the world ofone of the greatest scientists of the 20th century.