Francis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS (8 June 1916 – 28 July 2004) was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist. He, James Watson, Rosalind Franklin, and Maurice Wilkins played crucial roles in deciphering the helical structure of the DNA molecule. Crick and Watson's paper in Nature in 1953 laid the groundwork for understanding DNA structure and functions. Together with Maurice Wilkins, they were jointly awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material". Offered here an offprint from the title "Nucleic Acids" published in the Scientific American journal in 1957: "If proteins are the principal stuff of life, the nucleic acids are its blue prints-the molecules on which the Secret of Life, if we may speak of such a thing, is written. The nucleic acids occur in every living cell. It seems, according to our best present information, that they direct the manufacture of proteins and hold the key to the hereditary constitution of all living things. Like the proteins, the nucleic acids are high polymers, but they are polymers with a difference. If we ever achieve a complete understanding of their construction and behavior, we shall probably have the answer to how nature goes about forming each living organism". Very scarce title, particularly in this format. Nice copy, ex owner name on front upper corner but otherwise completely clean and crisp (see photos).