Francis H. C. Crick, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, the genetic blueprint for living things, and the leading molecular biologist of his age, died on Wednesday night in a hospital in San Diego. He was 88. So central is DNA to biology that the names of Francis H. C. Crick and James D. Watson, his American colleague in the discovery, are thought likely to be remembered as long as those of Darwin and Mendel, the architects of the two pillars of modern biology -- the theory of evolution and the laws of genetics. |
