A Long-Form Narrative Based on Matthew Cobb’s 2024 Wilkins–Bernal–Medawar Lecture
Prologue: More Than the Double Helix
We often remember Francis Crick as the co-discoverer of DNA’s double helix, an icon frozen in one of biology’s most photographed moments. But Crick’s story didn’t end in 1953—it began there. In a lecture that traversed decades of Crick’s life, Professor Matthew Cobb peeled back the layers of this audacious mind. Crick wasn’t just a great scientist; he was a provocative thinker, a restless questioner, and perhaps one of the most influential figures in the shaping of modern biology—and later, neuroscience.
This is the story of that life, those ideas, and how Crick remade science not once, but repeatedly.
๐งช Act I: The Code Breaker — Cracking the Logic of Life
The Power of Structure
Crick’s obsession was structure—not just of molecules but of ideas. He believed that function arises from structure, and nowhere did this insight shine more than in the early 1950s when he and James Watson pieced together the double helix. But the narrative of discovery didn't stop with the twist of DNA. Crick turned next to the genetic code, the rules that translate DNA’s four-letter alphabet into the twenty-letter world of proteins.
The “Frozen Accident” Hypothesis
Crick's famous “frozen accident” hypothesis argued that the genetic code arose by chance and then became locked in through evolution. Some data contradicted his models, but Crick didn’t panic. He and Sydney Brenner took what Cobb calls a “dangerous but productive approach”: they set aside contradictory data points, assuming the puzzle would eventually make sense. It did. And their ideas laid the foundations for molecular biology’s central dogma.
๐งฌ Act II: The Bold Biologist — On Genes, Evolution, and the Brain
Not Just DNA: A Master of the Unexpected
Despite training in physics, Crick was no intellectual tourist. Cobb argues that Crick became more biologist than most biologists. He predicted ideas that seemed radical at the time, including:
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The existence of split genes in eukaryotes.
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The likely vast amounts of “junk DNA”.
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The limitations of reductionist thinking when dealing with living systems.
Crick’s 1970s work, especially his 1979 Scientific American article and the “central dogma” concept, were not the conclusions of a physicist dabbling in biology. They were signs of a thinker who had absorbed the logic of life.
๐ง Act III: The Conscious Mind — Crick’s Final Obsession
A New Frontier: Neuroscience
When most scientists in their seventies retreat to legacy projects, Crick opened a new front: understanding consciousness. He found neuroscience full of vague metaphors and insufficient precision. This was unacceptable to a man who believed science must start from clear questions.
Crick, in partnership with Christof Koch, worked tirelessly to establish the idea of neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs). He asked four deceptively simple questions:
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Where are the neurons correlated with consciousness?
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Are they of a special type?
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Are their connections unique?
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Is there something distinct about their activation patterns?
These questions, Cobb argued, are still the best place to begin consciousness research. At a time when there are over 200 competing theories of consciousness, Crick’s clarity remains a lighthouse.
From Think-Pieces to Lab Staples
Crick’s proposals weren’t limited to theories. He imagined, years ahead of his time:
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Identifying neurons via mRNA signatures rather than morphology.
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Using light to control neurons—a technique now called optogenetics.
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Employing the human genome to compare our brain to those of other primates.
Back then, these were futuristic fantasies. Today, they’re standard tools in neuroscience labs.
One team even emailed Crick saying, “We just did what you imagined.”
His Final Days: Reading, Thinking, Watching the Mind Work
In the last years of his life, even while undergoing chemotherapy, Crick remained intellectually active. A vivid anecdote from Peter Lawrence captures this perfectly: on a trip to the desert, Crick stayed behind, too weak to walk. Two hours later, the others returned to find him still seated, reading a paper on neural networks.
When his granddaughter once asked what he did all day, Crick simply said:
“I think.”
๐ง The Method: Theory, Conversation, and Clarity
Crick didn’t run a lab. He didn’t supervise students. He didn’t teach undergraduates or mark exams. What he did was read, write, and think aloud.
His strategy was to:
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Develop short theoretical essays circulated among colleagues.
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Use theories not to explain everything, but to ask, “What should we test next?”
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Treat structure—be it the double helix or cortical circuits—as key to unlocking function.
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Invite conflict and challenge, not to win, but to refine.
Crick’s ideas weren’t polished jewels—they were intellectual provocations aimed at inspiring experiments.
๐ญ The Man Behind the Mind
Despite his towering intellect, Crick had a profound sense of fun. The word came up again and again in interviews with those who knew him. He hosted infamous parties (though Cobb declined to dish much gossip), challenged guests with biting questions, and surrounded himself with brilliant people.
He never moved much later in life—but the world came to him at the Salk Institute, where even Nobel Prize winners found themselves grilled in Crick’s informal salons.
๐️ Legacy and Controversy
The Naming Question
When asked whether Crick would’ve liked the Francis Crick Institute, Cobb didn’t hesitate:
“He would’ve hated it.”
Crick was intensely private and ambivalent about legacy. He accepted that two biographies would be written after his death, but likely wouldn’t have approved of anyone “burrowing around” in his affairs. Nor would he have liked having a building named after him, especially in light of renewed scrutiny over historical figures and their views.
A Model Now Lost?
The audience posed a poignant question: Could a scientist like Crick thrive today?
Cobb’s answer: Probably not.
Crick never had to teach, mark, or apply for grants (he only did so once!). Today, academics must:
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Justify outcomes before experiments are done.
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Produce impact statements.
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Explain economic benefits of curiosity-driven science.
The culture that nurtured Crick—at the MRC, Cambridge, the Salk—valued thinking time, conversation, and risky ideas. Today’s systems, Cobb argued, too often reward safety.
๐ Epilogue: What Crick Gave Us
Francis Crick died in 2004. He never solved consciousness, but he made it respectable to study. He didn’t win a second Nobel Prize, but he reframed entire fields—from molecular biology to cognitive neuroscience.
Above all, Crick exemplified the rarest of academic virtues:
He thought boldly, and then got others to do the hard work of testing those thoughts.
๐ Postscript
As Matthew Cobb concluded his lecture:
“I didn’t talk much about Crick the man. That’s in the book, out this November.”
We’ll be reading.
See the full lecture here: