"The particular field which excites my interest is the division between the living and the non-living, as typified by, say, proteins, viruses, bacteria and the structure of chromosomes. The eventual goal, which is somewhat remote, is the description of these activities in terms of their structure, i.e. the spatial distribution of their constituent atoms, in so far as this may prove possible."
Francis Crick. Grant application to the Medical Research Council. 1947.

"[Corey and I] reached the conclusion, as did Crick, that in the alpha-keratin proteins the alpha helices are twisted together into ropes or cables. This idea essentially completed our understanding of the alpha-keratin diffraction patterns."
Linus Pauling. "The Discovery of the Alpha Helix." September 1982.

"Pauling was a more important figure in molecular biology than is sometimes realized. Not only did he make certain key discoveries (that sickle cell anemia is a molecular disease, for example), but he had the correct theoretical approach to these biological problems."
Francis Crick. What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery (New York: Basic Books). 1988.

"Time has shown that, so far, Pauling was right and Delbrück was wrong, as indeed Delbrück acknowledged in his book, Mind into Matter. Everything we know about molecular biology appears to be explainable in a standard chemical way."
Francis Crick. What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery (New York: Basic Books). 1988.

"I don't think it's right, really, to discuss the impact of Linus Pauling on molecular biology. Rather he was one of the founders of molecular biology. It wasn't that it existed in some way and he came down and put something on it. He was one of the founders who got the whole discipline going."
Francis Crick. "The Impact of Linus Pauling on Molecular Biology." February 28, 1995.

Back to Quotes Index.