A theory should not attempt to explain all the facts, because some of the facts are wrong Francis Crick More Quotes by Francis Crick More Quotes From Francis Crick Almost all aspects of life are engineered at the molecular level, and without understanding molecules we can only have a very sketchy understanding of life itself. Francis Crick understanding life science Exact knowledge is the enemy of vitalism. Francis Crick science enemy knowledge Exploratory research is really like working in a fog. You don't know where you're going. You're just groping. Then people learn about it afterwards and think how straightforward it was. Francis Crick fog people thinking When you start in science, you are brainwashed into believing how careful you must be, and how difficult it is to discover things. There's something that might be called the 'graduate student syndrome'; graduate students hardly believe they can make a discovery. Francis Crick discovery science believe I also suspect that many workers in this field [molecular biology] and related fields have been strongly motivated by the desire, rarely actually expressed, to refute vitalism. Francis Crick molecular-biology fields desire Anybody who believes that the earth is less than 10,000 years old needs psychiatric help. Francis Crick believe years needs We are sometimes asked what the result would be if we put four +'s in one gene. To answer this my colleagues have recently put together not merely four but six +'s. Francis Crick would-be answers together It now seems very likely that many of the 64 triplets, possibly most of them, may code one amino acid or another, and that in general several distinct triplets may code one amino acid. Francis Crick triplet acid may This seems highly likely, especially as it has been shown that in several systems mutations affecting the same amino acid are extremely near together on the genetic map. Francis Crick mutation maps together It is not easy to convey, unless one has experienced it, the dramatic feeling of sudden enlightenment that floods the mind when the right idea finally clinches into place. Francis Crick mind feelings ideas Again the message to experimentalists is: Be sensible but don't be impressed too much by negative arguments. If at all possible, try it and see what turns up. Theorists almost always dislike this sort of approach. Francis Crick too-much trying negative It is notoriously difficult to define the word living. Francis Crick live-life life science It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material. Francis Crick genetics copying materials Our ... advantage was that we had evolved unstated but fruitful methods of collaboration ... If either of us suggested a new idea, the other, while taking it seriously, would attempt to demolish it in a candid but non-hostile manner. Francis Crick candid collaboration ideas The major credit I think Jim and I deserve ... is for selecting the right problem and sticking to it. It's true that by blundering about we stumbled on gold, but the fact remains that we were looking for gold. Both of us had decided, quite independently of each other, that the central problem in molecular biology was the chemical structure of the gene. ... We could not see what the answer was, but we considered it so important that we were determined to think about it long and hard, from any relevant point of view. Francis Crick discovery science thinking It is one of the more striking generalizations of biochemistry - which surprisingly is hardly ever mentioned in the biochemical textbooks - that the twenty amino acids and the four bases, are, with minor reservations, the same throughout Nature. Francis Crick textbooks four twenties Rather than believe that Watson and Crick made the DNA structure, I would rather stress that the structure made Watson and Crick. Francis Crick stress dna believe Moreover the incorporation requires the same components needed for protein synthesis, and is inhibited by the same inhibitors. Thus the system is most unlikely to be a complete artefact and is very probably closely related to genuine protein synthesis. Francis Crick unlikely protein synthesis Trying to determine the structure of a protein by UV spectroscopy was like trying to determine the structure of a piano by listening to the sound it made while being dropped down a flight of stairs. Francis Crick engineering piano science For simplicity one can think of the + class as having one extra base at some point or other in the genetic message and the - class as having one too few. Francis Crick simplicity class thinking