Francis Crick: Making

Francis Crick was British molecular biologist, biophysicist, neuroscientist; co-discoverer of the structure of DNA. Explore interesting quotes on making.
Francis Crick: 32   quotes 0   likes

“The job of theorists, especially in biology, is to suggest new experiments. A good theory makes not only predictions, but surprising predictions that then turn out to be true. (If its predictions appear obvious to experimentalists, why would they need a theory?) ”

Francis Crick

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What Mad Pursuit (1988)

Appearance

“Before I describe in more detail exactly what is involved in seeing, let me make three general remarks.”

Francis Crick

The Astonishing Hypothesis (1994)

“And so to those of you who may be vitalists I would make this prophecy: what everyone believed yesterday, and you believe today, only cranks will believe tomorrow.”

Francis Crick

Of Molecules and Men (1966)

“What is found in biology is mechanisms, mechanisms built with chemical components and that are often modified by other, later, mechanisms added to the earlier ones. While Occam's razor is a useful tool in the physical sciences, it can be a very dangerous implement in biology. It is thus very rash to use simplicity and elegance as a guide in biological research. While DNA could be claimed to be both simple and elegant, it must be remembered that DNA almost certainly originated fairly close to the origin of life when things were necessarily simple or they would not have got going.
Biologists must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved. It might be thought, therefore, that evolutionary arguments would play a large part in guiding biological research, but this is far from the case. It is difficult enough to study what is happening now. To figure out exactly what happened in evolution is even more difficult. Thus evolutionary achievements can be used as hints to suggest possible lines of research, but it is highly dangerous to trust them too much. It is all too easy to make mistaken inferences unless the process involved is already very well understood.”

Francis Crick

What Mad Pursuit (1988)

Life , Study , Science , Parting

“The job of theorists, especially in biology, is to suggest new experiments. A good theory makes not only predictions, but surprising predictions that then turn out to be true.”

Francis Crick

If its predictions appear obvious to experimentalists, why would they need a theory?
What Mad Pursuit (1988)

Making love