Crick: A Mind in Motion – from DNA to the Brain

Matthew Cobb

Nov 2025 · Profile Books

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441

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AN ECONOMIST, GUARDIAN AND CHURCH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR

Winner of the Hatchards First Biography Prize 2025

'The definitive backstory of one of the towering figures of 20th-century science' Guardian

'Brilliant and inspiring. A landmark biography' Adam Rutherford

Francis Crick was a restless, relentless thinker, as fascinated by Beat poetry and psychedelics as the genetic meaning of life and the inner workings of the brain. Yet for all his drive, he was galvanised by collaboration: with Jim Watson on DNA, with artists in Cambridge and California, and with his wife Odile, who drew the figure of the double helix that illuminated his most famous discovery. It was his debates and conflicts with these collaborators that powered a mind in motion.

Meticulously researched and shot through with insight and electrifying detail, Matthew Cobb reveals the man who changed our view of life forever. Crick is the first major biography of one of the twentieth century's most exciting minds.

AN ECONOMIST, GUARDIAN AND CHURCH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR Winner of the Hatchards First Biography Prize 2025 'The definitive backstory of one of the towering figures of 20th-century science' Guardian 'Brilliant and inspiring. A landmark biography' Adam Rutherford Francis Crick was a restless, rele...

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About the author

Matthew Cobb is Professor of Zoology at the University of Manchester. The presenter of the BBC radio series Genetic Dreams, Genetic Nightmares, his previous books include The Idea of the Brain: A History, which was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford, and The Genetic Age, a Sunday Times Book of the Year.

Matthew Cobb is Professor of Zoology at the University of Manchester. The presenter of the BBC radio series Genetic Dreams, Genetic Nightmares, his previous books include The Idea of the Brain: A History, which was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford, and The Genetic Age, a Sunday Times Book of t...

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