Francis Crick

Francis Crick, who died in 2004 at the age of 88, is considered by many to be one of the greatest scientists of all time, alongside Galileo, Darwin, and Einstein. Between 1953 and 1966 he led a revolution in biology by uncovering the genetic code, the fundamental digital cipher of heredity. His personal discoveries include not only the double helix but also protein synthesis, the nature of the code as consisting of three-letter units, and much of the code itself. Ridley's biography follows him from his middle-class childhood in the English Midlands through a mediocre education and six years developing magnetic mines for the Royal Navy to Crick's decision to pursue biology at age thirty-one.