1916-

English Physicist and Molecular Biologist

In 1962 Francis Crick shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine with James Watson (1928- )and Maurice Wilkins (1916- ) for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and its significance for the transmission of genetic information. Molecular biologists have called the discovery of the double-helical structure of DNA one of the most important developments in twentieth-century biology. The structure of DNA proposed by Crick and Watson in 1953 immediately suggested insights into the nature of the gene, the genetic code, and mechanism by which information stored in DNA was transmitted from generation to generation.

Francis Crick was born in Northampton, England, where his father ran a shoe factory. He attended Northampton Grammar School and entered Mill Hill School in London at the age of 14. Even as a child Crick was extremely curious and interested in scientific...