Francis Crick has been called the "greatest British scientist of the twentieth century". I am no scientist; would those with greater scientific expertise agree with this assessment? (217.41.240.18 10:03, 30 Jul 2004 (UTC))
In my opinion Francis Crick is the greatest scientist i've known and I am putting him as my role module, as of now i am doing a chosen assignment on him which has give me great joy of doing in getting a good grade off my english teacher.--212.219.82.35 08:31, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)Pamela Middleton.14
LSD
Apparently the concept of DNA's double helix came to him while using LSD. [1] --Thoric 30 June 2005 15:51 (UTC)
- Even if it is true that Crick used LSD, you need a better source than a "he said that someone said that Crick said" story that Crick was ready to fight in court. Also, it would be hard to sort out to what extent drug use might have contributed to a particular scientific idea. --JWSchmidt 30 June 2005 16:23 (UTC)
psyche
"disprove the existence of the psyche" <-- What is does this mean? I cannot imagine a meaning for it that would apply to Crick. The whole section that starts with this statement is not an encyclopedic account of Crick's views on religion. Maybe some of the quotes could go on an article specifically about reactions to Directed Panspermia. --JWSchmidt 23:00, 7 September 2005 (UTC)
Religious Beliefs
This entire section should be struck. As noted above, the opening sentence is embarrassingly imprecise. And the rest of the entire section is not only a bizarrely ill-informed ad hominem from a "political analyst" / theatre critic, it's a copyrighted ill-informed ad hominem. The author being "quoted" for the entire section doesn't understand the scientific utility of the panspermia argument, which is just to increase the size of the statistical pool of random variations that could lead to an unlikely event, thereby decreasing the importance of the "What are the chances?" argument. Lacking this understanding, he then sadly conflates the argument with the irrational inherited belief systems of the ancients, and actually asserts that Crick "appears not to have noticed" the difference. The irony of that assertion will doubtless be forever lost on the author, who was clearly out of his depth writing about science. Mtiffany 17:17, 7 October 2005 (UTC)
- I agree that the critique by User:68.193.197.230 of Crick's motivation for exploring panspermia is rather lame. I wonder why User:Moriori reverted your edit when you removed this section of the article on 7 September 2005. However, I am not a knee-jerk deletionist. Based on other edits by 68.193.197.230, the original author of this section may be an advocate of Intelligent design and feel the need to claim that science and atheistic scientists never really escape their own religious motivations. I think it is valid to question the motivations of scientists and this kind of questioning is part of the wider public response to Crick. I think it might be constructive to craft a more encyclopedic account of the point raised by 68.193.197.230 and then follow that with an alternative view of Crick's scientific motivation for exploring the idea of panspermia. --JWSchmidt 17:59, 7 October 2005 (UTC)
- I reverted User:Mtiffany's deletion because I thought the information added to the article. I still do, even though it needs work. I was on vandal patrol when I noticed his deletion. Usually I revert when I see a non registered user delete information which may have some merit, particularly when a reason is not given for the edit, as happened on this occasion. I believe I get it right most of the time, but if I don't, editors who object can always drop a note on my talk page where we can discuss it. It is a month since I made my edit, and only now am I made aware than someone disagreed with it! However, that seems to be beside the point now, because if it is copyrighted as User:Mtiffany says then it must be junked. Moriori 20:26, 7 October 2005 (UTC)
Could we have a little more on his life? esp after 1976
Yes, see: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/crick04/crick04_index.html
195.92.168.168 13:57, 27 October 2005 (UTC) (MP)
Knighthood
This morning an anon added a couple of sentences this morning about Crick not having the title 'Sir', which User:Toh usefully cleanup to read:
- Though Crick is sometimes referred to by writers as "Sir Francis Crick", he was never knighted and thus is not titled "Sir".
Whilst this is true, it is still rather misleading since Crick actually received the Order of Merit in 1991 — The British honours system is more than a little confusing, but I believe the Order of Merit is generally considered a higher honour than that of Knight Bachelor. Now admittedly we could do a bit more to mention that Crick was an OM other than the two letters following his name on the first line. There must be some better quotes around, but this article includes some useful comments on how Crick generally refused most honours offered to him.
However, I don't think it is appropriate to include a line saying that some people mistakenly refer to him with the title 'Sir'. -- Solipsist 11:35, 25 November 2005 (UTC)
Hi I am the author of the "couple of sentences", which have now been re-instated as "While Crick received the prestigious Order of Merit in 1991, he was never knighted so references to 'Sir Francis Crick' in mainly American scientific publications are in error." Any comments please on this version?
195.92.168.167 12:03, 26 November 2005 (UTC) Martin Packer, a researcher for Francis Crick's new biography = http://www.packer34.freeserve.co.uk/rememberingfranciscrickacelebration.htm
ps 16 American publishers have just been advised of their science books containing this mistake, including Harvard University Press and even Cambridge (England) University Press for North America! (You are not alone in being 'confused' by the British_honours_ system!)
pps
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=546341
"As if deification were not enough, the public portrait was also honoured with a putative knighthood. There are many examples in the archive, over a number of years, of letters wrongly addressed to “Sir” Francis Crick, for which Dr Crick had many graceful responses. James Watson, for one, wrote him a mock-congratulatory letter (8 September 1966) when the knighthood mistake accompanied an article by Crick in the Saturday Review for 3 September 1966.26, However, the entertaining apotheosis came when the title appeared in the answer to a newspaper crossword clue in the New York Times,27 thereby firmly endorsing the urban legend." (I think this is the last word!)