Title:

The Two Languages of Biology

Creator:

Crick, Francis, 1916-2004

Date:

[1969?]

Description:

Crick delivered this lecture, originally entitled "The Linear Languages of Biology," on October 29, 1969, as part of the Cambridge Philosophical Society's sesquicentenary celebrations. On the same evening, his fellow Cambridge Nobel Laureates John Kendrew and Max Perutz also gave lectures.. Crick here articulated the view of the genome as an information system, a linguistic text written in DNA code, with its own syntax and grammar, to be read and edited by scientists. This view had come to prevail among molecular biologists during the 1950s, the beginning of what was later called the information age. The metaphor of the genome as a script has guided their theories and experimental practices ever since.

Original Repository:

The Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine. Francis Harry Compton Crick Papers

Location:

Box: 41. Folder: PP/CRI/E/1/17/10

Rights:

Reproduced with permission of the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine. and http://library.wellcome.ac.uk/

Genre:

Lecture notes

Subject:

Genetic Code

Format:

Text

Extent:

8 pages

Language:

English

Legacy Source Citation:

Original Repository. Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine. Francis Harry Compton Crick Papers. 11646. URL. http://archives.wellcome.ac.uk/

Legacy ID:

SCBBDN

NLM ID:

101584582X41

Profiles Collection:

The Francis Crick Papers

Shareable Link:

https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584582X41

Story Section:

Embryology and the Organization of DNA in Higher Organisms, 1966-1976