第280页 The number of the beast

"Crick urged on his companions two other simplifying assumptions of great audacity. The first was not merely that the sequence of nucleotides in DNA dictated the linear sequence of amino acid, but that protein need nothing more than that from the gene-that if the sequence was correct, it would fold into its three-dimentional configuaration by itself...Secondly, they assumed, with some apprehension, that the genetic code would be the same for all living things..."


-现在看来这两条猜想简直是理所当然众所周知的事情，然而在当时一团漆黑，各种假说群雄并起的情况下，甚直没有足够的氨基酸序列以供解码，能够基于一步一步的假设最后摸清楚转录-翻译的来龙去脉真是让人激动不已阿。其实我觉得，如果发现一个DNA结构本身还不足以称作伟大，那么从双螺旋到半保留复制的猜想，从RNA的功能到Central Dogma的建立，这才是Crick真正的伟大之处。