Man who helped unlock DNA (Francis Crick) dies | BBC

[Ediacara]

Man who helped unlock DNA dies


Francis Crick co-discovered the
double-helix with James Watson

Francis Crick, who helped discover the double helix shape of DNA along with James Watson, has died aged 88.

Professor Crick died at Thornton Hospital in San Diego, US, where he had been battling colon cancer.

The British-born scientist won the Nobel Prize for his work on DNA's structure, which he helped model in 1953 at the University of Cambridge.

"I will always remember Francis for his extraordinarily focused intelligence," Professor Watson said on Thursday.

"He treated me as though I were a member of his family. Being with him for two years in a small room in Cambridge was truly a privilege," he continued.

"I always looked forward to being with him and speaking to him, up until the moment of his death. He will be sorely missed."

More at the BBC

Mods: sorry if this is a dupe, I heard this on CNN earlier today, but couldn't find it in LBN when I searched...

[Dudley_DUright]

1. First I heard of it, a great loss to science

Watson and Crick did incredible work using x-ray diffraction to work out the general structure of DNA. The analysis was very difficult since it was done without the aid of computers.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/do53dn.html

Of course Rosalind Franklin also deserves a lot of the credit as well (unfortunately, she was deceased when the Nobel Prize was awarded, so she could not be included as one of the honorees, you must be living to be awarded a Nobel).

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bofran.html

[Dudley_DUright]

2. I should note that there is a GD thread on this same topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2103948