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Fame is a bubble, but not for some Gregory A Petsko

The death of Francis Crick, who succumbed to colon cancer on 28 July at the age of 88, does more than mark the end of one of the most distinguished, and influential, scientific careers of the last century. It also helps mark the end of an era: the remarkable era when biology was transformed from a descriptive, largely organism-based science into a molecular one. Now we are living through another period of transformation, as genomics allied with molecular biology changes the subject into one that is more quantitative, more dependent on computational and engineering tools -. | Comment Fame is a bubble but not for some Gregory A Petsko Address Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center Brandeis University Waltham MA 02454-9110 USA. E-mail petsko@brandeis.edu Published 24 August 2004 Genome Biology 2004 5 114 The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at http genomebiology.com 2004 5 9 ll4 2004 BioMed Central Ltd The death of Francis Crick who succumbed to colon cancer on 28 July at the age of 88 does more than mark the end of one of the most distinguished and influential scientific careers of the last century. It also helps mark the end of an era the remarkable era when biology was transformed from a descriptive largely organism-based science into a molecular one. Now we are living through another period of transformation as genomics allied with molecular biology changes the subject into one that is more quantitative more dependent on computational and engineering tools - and perhaps one that once again will put the whole organism rather than just its parts at the center of its world. It s rather a pity that Crick won t be around to see that through because even if he didn t participate in it directly he certainly would have had some pithy things to say about it. Crick came to biology late - he started out in physics but fled that field after World War II as did many other bright young physicists perhaps in search of something more life-affirming. Whatever the motivations the trend resulted in an influx of quantitative reductionists who were expert in doing very precise experiments and they arrived at exactly the moment that biology was ripe for change. By the early 1950s scientists had identified the major components in molecular terms of the cellular machinery and were just starting to develop and use sophisticated chemical and physical techniques that could reveal their structures and functions. Cambridge England was a Mecca for such people in less than 20 years Kendrew and his associates