Francis Crick : discoverer of the genetic code

It's now over 50 years since the discovery of the structure of DNA and, perhaps surprisingly, there is more interest in the discovery now than there was at the time. In Francis Crick : discoverer of the genetic code, Matt Ridley tells of the life of one of the discoverers.Thus we find out how Crick's combination of a supremely logical mind with a tendency to go against the flow resulted in an uncanny ability to pick the right hypothesis. Crick's contribution to science certainly didn't stop with the structure of DNA - he went on tho play an equally important part in working out the code DNA uses to make proteins.

Then came the Nobel prize and the benefits of fame, but we also find out about the disagreements Crick - who had never been afraid to speak his mind - had with other people (including James Watson). In the later part of his life Crick didn't slow down, rather he chose an even more challenging problem to work on - that of consciousness - and was working on this even in his final hours.

As part of the Eminent lives series of short biographies this book doesn't doesn't have the same detail as a more substantial biography would, but Matt Ridley is a skilled writer and I feel that it fulfils its role very well.