Francis Crick is one half of the famous pair of molecular biologists who unraveled the mystery of the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), carrier of genetic information, thus ushering in the modern era of molecular biology. Since this fundamental discovery, Crick has made significant contributions to the understanding of the genetic code and gene action, as well as of molecular neurobiology. In Horace Judson's book The Eighth Day of Creation, the Nobel laureate Jacques Lucien Monod is quoted as saying, "No one man created molecular biology. But Francis Crick dominates intellectually the whole field. He knows the most and understands the most." Crick shared the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1962 with James Watson and Maurice Wilkins for the elucidation of the structure of DNA.

The eldest of two sons, Francis Harry Compton Crick was born to Harry Crick and Anne Elizabeth Wilkins on June 8, 1916, in Northampton, England. His...