To produce a really good biological theory one must try to see through the clutter produced by evolution to the basic mechanisms lying beneath them, realizing that they are likely to be overlaid by other, secondary mechanisms. What seems to physicists to be a hopelessly complicated process may have been what nature found simplest, because nature could only build on what was already there.
Interpretation
Producing a good biological theory requires understanding the fundamental mechanisms of evolution despite their complexity.
In this quote, Francis Crick emphasizes the need for scientists to navigate through the complexities introduced by evolutionary processes in order to identify the fundamental principles that govern biological systems. He notes that while the processes may appear intricate to physicists, they are often the result of simpler, foundational mechanisms that nature has built upon over time, suggesting that what seems complex may have evolved from straightforward origins.
In practice
In a lecture on evolutionary biology, this quote can be used to illustrate the importance of foundational mechanisms in understanding life.
One can say, looking at the papers in this symposium, that the elucidation of the genetic code is indeed a great achievement. It is, in a sense, the key to molecular biology because it shows how the great polymer languages, the nucleic acid language and the protein language, are linked together.
Exact knowledge is the enemy of vitalism.
A theory should not attempt to explain all the facts, because some of the facts are wrong
It is essential to understand our brains in some detail if we are to assess correctly our place in this vast and complicated universe we see all around us.
It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material.
In the fullness of time, educated people will believe there is no soul independent of the body, and hence no life after death.
It is my supposition that the Universe in not only queerer than we imagine, is queerer than we can imagine.
You make observations, write theories to fit them, try experiments to disprove the theories and, if you can't, you've got something.
Modern agriculture is the use of land to convert petroleum into food.
It was about three o'clock at night when the final result of the calculation [which gave birth to quantum mechanics] lay before me ... At first I was deeply shaken ... I was so excited that I could not think of sleep. So I left the house ... and awaited the sunrise on top of a rock.
The human brain has 100 billion neurons, each neuron connected to 10 thousand other neurons. Sitting on your shoulders is the most complicated object in the known universe.
The history of the universe is, in effect, a huge and ongoing quantum computation. The universe is a quantum computer.
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