Francis Crick’s Letter to His Son About Discovery of DNA to be Auctioned in NYC

A letter that scientist, Francis Crick wrote to his 12-year-old son six decades ago, about the structure of the DNA, is being auctioned off in New York. In the letter to his son, he wrote that he and a colleague had found something “very beautiful” and that was the structure of DNA. The note had some hand-drawn diagrams and Christie’s estimates the letter could fetch $ 1 million or more at the April 10 sale.

In the letter, Crick writes to his son about the way in which he and James Watson had discovered the copying mechanism -the secret “by which life comes from life.” The letter also has a very simple sketch of DNA’s double helix structure.

The letter written by Francis Crick is of seven pages and is dated March 19, 1953. It is a hand written letter to his son studying at a boarding school. It says, “Read this carefully so that you will understand it. When you come home we will show you the model. Lots of love, Daddy.”

Michael Crick, who is 72 years old now said, “I don’t think any of us at the time quite realized the full impact it would have.” A month after he wrote the letter to his son mentioning the discovery, Watson and Crick’s research was published in the journal Nature.



Source-Medindia