What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery [Paperback]

Francis Crick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 10, 1990 | ISBN-10: 0465091385 | ISBN-13: 978-0465091386

Candid, provocative, and disarming, this is the widely-praised memoir of the co-discoverer of the double helix of DNA.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Crick's co-discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA (for which he shared a Nobel Prize with James Watson and Maurice Wilkins) was a maddening pursuit beset with false ideas, sloppy models, inconclusive results and fiascos. This will not come as news to readers of Watson's 1968 bestseller The Double Helix. Part memoir, part scientific primer, Crick's gracefully written reminiscence is more concerned with elucidating the intuitive leaps, feats of intellectual courage and perceptual skills that underlie the act of scientific discovery. Writing about his own career with uncommon modesty, he describes his current research into human consciousness and neuroanatomy; brain science of the 1980s, he concludes, is much like molecular biology of the '30s: the major questions remain largely unanswered. One wishes Crick were less reticent about his personal life. His occasional technical forays here into natural selection, the deciphering of the genetic code and theories of perception illuminate how science works. Illustrations.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

YA Crick and Jim Watson received the 1962 Nobel Prize for their discovery of the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. Here, Crick details his early training as a physicist; explains how he came to be at Cambridge studying X-ray crystallography; and shows his great respect for other scientists such as Linus Pauling, Sir Lawrence Bragg, Max Perutz, and Sidney Brenner. The writing is clear and straightforward, even when the renderings become technical. The appendixes elaborate further on the detailed biochemistry of the subject. Crick relates both the problems and the successes that he and Watson incurred in their "mad pursuit" of the mysteries within the DNA molecule. He concludes this volume with a discussion of his work at the Salk Institute in California. A shorter version of Crick's life and work appears in Lewis Wolpert and Alison Richards' Passion for Science (Oxford, 1988), but the longer version will be of interest to more persistent students.Robyn Cook Schuster, Episcopal High School, Bellaire, Tex.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (July 10, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465091385
• ISBN-13: 978-0465091386
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #195,289 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Insights from a great scientist, August 17, 2002

By 

Alex De Visscher (Calgary, AB, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery (Paperback)

At first, I was reluctant about reading this book. What on earth could Francis Crick add to the story of the discovery of the double helix, that had not yet been told by his colleague, James Watson, in his famous book "The Double Helix"? A lot, as it turns out. In fact, the two books rarely overlap. Whereas Watson's book mainly relates his experiences as they worked their way towards discovery, Crick does what he does best: making comments. Also, Crick's book doesn't stop at the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA, as Watson's book does, but continues with the cracking of the genetic code.

Crick's book was written twenty years after Watson's book, and it shows. Watson's book contains a fresh story, the raw material out of which history is shaped. Crick's tale is a digested one: written after all the confusion of the moment had cleared up.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Account of the Discovery of DNA's Structure and MORE!!!!, August 8, 2005

By 

Stephen Pletko "Uncle Stevie" (London, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery (Paperback)

+++++

THIS book, by Dr. Francis Crick (June 1916 to July 2004), is partly an autobiography and partly a science book. As for the science part, Crick elaborates:

"I have written [this book] both for my fellow scientists and for the general public [and] believe a [non-scientist] can easily understand most of what I discuss...My advice to the reader, should he or she become stuck in...a [difficult, scientific] passage, is either to persevere or to skip to the next chapter. Most of the book is fairly easy. Don't give up hope just because a few paragraphs seem a little hard to follow."

What, then, is the purpose of this book? Crick tells the reader:

"The main purpose of this book is to set out some of my experiences before and during the classical period of molecular biology, which stretched from the discovery of the DNA double helix in 1953 till about 1966 when the genetic code...was finally elucidated."

(Molecular biology is a branch of biology that studies the chemical and physical principles associated with the composition, properties, and activities of molecules in living cells. The genetic code is the dictionary relating the nucleic acid {such as DNA and RNA} language to the protein language.)

Crick achieves his purpose admirably! He gives us an overview of his main, personal experiences and reveals his thoughts at each period in his life. I especially enjoyed his chapter entitled "The Gossip Test" and his memories about the "RNA Tie Club."

I found the science part especially well done. He explains the science that led up to the discovery of DNA's structure but goes beyond this, explaining such things as the different types of RNA, protein structure, the genetic code, and theory in molecular biology. Everything is well explained and there are many helpful diagrams.

Be aware that Crick decided not to give character sketches of his friends and colleagues especially James Watson (born: 1928), Maurice Wilkins (1916 to 2004), Rosalind Franklin (1920 to 1958) and Linus Pauling (1901 to 1994). In other words, he chose not to include "juicy" gossip in his book. I found this refreshing since I found that in reading other books similar to this one that such character sketches can be distracting to the main essence of the book.

This book does not conclude in the year 1966 since Crick includes a final, long epilogue chapter entitled "My Later Years." This chapter is especially interesting as we are told how he moved on to the field of embryology or developmental biology to become involved generally in human brain science and more specifically in human consciousness. I found his theory of "panspermia" (that "is the idea that microorganisms drifted to the Earth through space and seeded all life on Earth") most interesting.

This book has two excellent appendices that resemble a small course in basic genetics. I found these to be well written.

Included near the middle of the book are over twenty black and white photographs. My favorite is Crick with Wilkins and Watson (as well as famous others like John Steinbeck) at the 1962 Nobel Prize Ceremony.

Finally, my only problem occurs on the inside back flap of the book's dust cover. It says the Crick "shared a Nobel Prize with...Watson and...Wilkins in 1962 for the discovery of the double helix of DNA." Not true! According to the official Nobel Prize internet site, they shared the prize "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structures of nucleic acid and its significance for information transfer in living material."

In conclusion, if you want to know about the life and brilliant intellect of a "genius of modern science," then you have to read this book!!

(first published 1988; acknowledgements; introduction; 14 chapters; photo inserts; main narrative 165 pages; 2 appendices; index)

+++++

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An amazing travel in science, July 25, 2000

By 

Kamal Sharma (berlin, berlin Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery (Paperback)

I am a graduate student in neuroscience and a book by crick was not without any expectations for me. I feel that the book is totally up to my expectations to feel the diversity of a scientific journey from physics to behavior neuroscience through a mile stone achievement in molecular biology.. In the starting Crick gets little stuck in discussion of existance of God which confuses a bit , but later on it is worth of reading in one go. A bonus point of this book is to know other great scientists of that time and their way of thinking , and an excellent capability of crick to pass the meassages of those souls to the reader in a very readable way.