[On Of Molecules and Men]

Date:
[c.1970]
Reference:
PP/CRI/I/2/6/1
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: [On <i>Of Molecules and Men</i>]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    F- H © cmo& it is not the author who needs an introduction this time, but rather the subject matter. The author, ü'rancis ürick, is also known outside the circle of his fellow biologists: his name, in fact, is associated with that of one of the most memorable results in modern science, the Watson-Crick mo del of the structure of DNA, the famous double helix. Proposed in 1953, it is a molecular model, but not of just any molecule: this one has the privilege of guarding and transmitting the hereditary charac- teristxcs from parent to child, throughout the course of evolution, ürick's name recurs in another undertaking which can be appreciated even by non-specialists - the deciphering of the genetic code; that is, of the symbolic writing used to record the hereditary characteri stics im- the DNA molecule. He is indisputably among the leaders of modern biology. The book's subject is two-fold. TheVtopic is modern biology; and especially the trend known as molecular biology. Crick wants to synthesize in a few pages the re sults from twenty years which were among the most prolific in the history of ideas: not technical results of interest to the spe cialist, but new ideas which solve thousand-year-old riddles and upset our vision of the world. Perhaps something has already entered our general culture; but to many theij:# are still novelties. Here again there is no need to make introductions ; one need only listen. The second topic, vitalism - a theme on the borderline between bio logy and philosophy, whicn tne author cnooses as tne ccrtd^ctSy thread