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Crick
- Author
- Matthew Cobb
- Narrator
- Neil Gardner
- Publisher
- Hachette Audio
- Publish Date
- 11 November 2025
- Run Time
- 17 hours 27 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
What are the moments that make a life? In Francis Crick’s, the decisive moment came in 1951, when he first met James Watson. Their ensuing discovery of the structure of DNA made Crick world-famous. But neither that chance meeting nor that discovery made Crick who he was.
As Matthew Cobb shows in Crick, it is another chance encounter, with a line from the writing of Beat poet Michael McClure, that reveals Crick’s character: “THIS IS THE POWERFUL KNOWLEDGE,” it shouted. Crick, having read it, would keep it with him for the rest of his life, a token of his desire to solve the riddles of existence. John Keats once accused scientists of merely wanting to “unweave a rainbow,” but it was an irrepressible, Romantic urge to wonder that defined Crick, as much as a desire to find the basis of life in DNA and the workings of our minds.
For the first time ever, Cobb presents the full portrait of Crick, a scientist and a man: his triumphs and failings, insights and oversights. Crick set out to find the powerful knowledge. Almost miraculously, he did.
Critics Review
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"Crick: A Mind in Motion beautifully captures the personality of Francis Crick, the way I knew him for 16 years, his incandescent intellect, his incessant striving for mechanistic explanations in terms of genes and neurons
underlying the code of life and the footprints of consciousness in the brain, always, always asking why and why not, until, literally, the day he died."—Christof Koch, author of Then I Am Myself the World -
"In this thrilling biography of one of the 20th century’s greatest minds, Cobb uncovers the unseen twists, relentless curiosity, and sheer audacity that shaped Francis Crick’s remarkable life. This intimate portrait will inspire any reader drawn to the thrill of discovery and the power of big ideas."—David Eagleman, author of Livewired and Incognito
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Details
- Author
- Matthew Cobb
- Narrator
- Neil Gardner
- Duration
- 17 hours 27 minutes
- Release Date
- 11 November 2025
- ISBN
- 9781668652848
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Hachette Audio
- Genre
- History of science, Biography: science, technology and medicine, Neurosciences
Synopsis
A major new biography of Francis Crick, codiscoverer of the structure of DNA, pioneering neuroscientist, and twentieth-century genius  What are the moments that make a life? In Francis Crick’s, the decisive moment came in 1951, when he first met James Watson. Their ensuing discovery of the structure of DNA made Crick world-famous. But neither that chance meeting nor that discovery made Crick who he was.  As Matthew Cobb shows in Crick, it is another chance encounter, with a line from the writing of Beat poet Michael McClure, that reveals Crick’s character: “THIS IS THE POWERFUL KNOWLEDGE,” it shouted. Crick, having read it, would keep it with him for the rest of his life, a token of his desire to solve the riddles of existence. John Keats once accused scientists of merely wanting to “unweave a rainbow,” but it was an irrepressible, Romantic urge to wonder that defined Crick, as much as a desire to find the basis of life in DNA and the workings of our minds.   For the first time ever, Cobb presents the full portrait of Crick, a scientist and a man: his triumphs and failings, insights and oversights. Crick set out to find the powerful knowledge. Almost miraculously, he did. 
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