All thinkers

Francis Crick: 2 ideas worth knowing

2 ideas from Francis Crick, each explained in a minute and credited to the original work. Free on Savvy.

• Two scientists seriously argued Earth was deliberately seeded with life from space

  In 1973, Francis Crick — who co-discovered DNA's double helix — and chemist Leslie Orgel published a paper arguing life on Earth could have begun when an advanced civilization deli…

  — Francis Crick & Leslie Orgel, Directed Panspermia

• Before DNA and proteins, life may have run entirely on RNA

  RNA can both store genetic information, like DNA, and fold into shapes that catalyse reactions, like proteins, so several scientists in the late 1960s proposed early life ran on se…

  — Francis Crick, The Origin of the Genetic Code

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