Sources for a Biography of Dr. Francis Crick

Olby, Robert, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

Project Abstract SES 0137247 Sources for a Biography of Dr. Francis Crick Dr. Robert Olby University of Pittsburgh This project is the first phase of a biographical study of the career of Dr. Francis Crick. The study is not confined to the subject's contributions to the molecular biology of the fifties and sixties, but extends back to his applied research for the navy and forward to his neurobiological career in the eighties and nineties. The project supports research at several locations in California (La Jolla, Irvine, Los Angeles), Long Island (Cold Spring Harbor), and the U.K. (London, Cambridge, and Northampton) in order to examine archives; search for relevant correspondence, personal documents, and photographs; and conduct selected interviews. These sources are the basis, in conjunction with published sources, of chapters for a forthcoming book-length biography and articles for professional journals. The publications resulting from this research will complement and enlarge the information already available in Dr. Crick's autobiography, "What Mad Pursuit." Dr. Crick continues to be immersed in neuroscience, but has agreed to the PI's request to prepare this biography. The aim is to inform the reader both about this central figure of the molecular revolution and about the birth, subsequent transformation, and impact of the molecular biology of the fifties with which Crick's name is so closely associated. Taking the study back to the war years will seek to show how his involvement in military research - his 'first career' -- contributed to shaping his style of research. Extending forward to his 'third' career in neuroscience will illuminate the subject of post-Nobel career changes. The study seeks to show how the multifarious topics taken up by Dr. Crick are related, and what motivation lay behind their choice. This full-length portrait will fill a gap in the biographies of twentieth century scientists, throw fresh light on the molecular revolution, inform the general reader about the remarkable evolution and transformation undergone by the molecular biology of the fifties and sixties, and underline the great impact the subject has had upon so many provinces of biology.