Tuesday 27 July 2010

The Scientist

Francis Crick was of two scientists who discovered the structure of the DNA molecule. The cognitive psychologist Vilayanur Ramachandran, a friend and colleague of Crick's, described him the last time they talked only three weeks prior to his death:
"I visited him in his home in La Jolla. He was eighty-eight, had terminal cancer, was in pain, and was on chemotherapy; yet he had obviously been working away nonstop on his latest project. His very large desk- occupying half of the room- was covered by articles, correspondence, envelops, recent issues of Nature, a laptop (despite his dislike of computers), and recent books in neuroanatomy. During the whole two hours that I was there, there was no mention of his illness- only a flight of ideas on the neural basis of consciousness..." He was still correcting his last paper on his way to the hospital a few hours before he died, on July 28, 2004.
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Just noticed tomorrow will be the 6-years anniversary of his death!

2 comments:

Don Cox said...

I never met him, but at one time I used to have lunch in the same canteen, so I saw him often.

A man with great presence.

Behdokht said...

Interesting! :)