The Crick papers: 1962 The Nobel Prize 1/3/03. By Giles Newton In 1962, Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

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1 of 5 1962 The Nobel Prize 18 October 1962. Telegram to Crick from Sten Friberg, Rector, Karolinska Institutet, informing him of the award of the Nobel Prize.

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2 of 5 1962 The Nobel Prize 18 October 1962. Telegram to Crick from Sten Friberg, Rector, Karolinska Institutet, informing him of the award of the Nobel Prize.

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3 of 5 1962 The Nobel Prize Crick delivered the Franklin I Harris Memorial Lecture (The Nature of the Genetic Code) on 9 April 1962, at Mount Zion Hospital, San Francisco. In the photograph, we see Crick with a young admirer, immediately prior to delivering the lecture. Later in the year, on learning of the Nobel Prize, the young man wrote a congratulatory letter (with side-burn advice), enclosing the photograph.

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4 of 5 1962 The Nobel Prize Crick delivered the Franklin I Harris Memorial Lecture (The Nature of the Genetic Code) on 9 April 1962, at Mount Zion Hospital, San Francisco. In the photograph, we see Crick with a young admirer, immediately prior to delivering the lecture. Later in the year, on learning of the Nobel Prize, the young man wrote a congratulatory letter (with side-burn advice), enclosing the photograph.

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5 of 5 1962 The Nobel Prize Crick delivered the Franklin I Harris Memorial Lecture (The Nature of the Genetic Code) on 9 April 1962, at Mount Zion Hospital, San Francisco. In the photograph, we see Crick with a young admirer, immediately prior to delivering the lecture. Later in the year, on learning of the Nobel Prize, the young man wrote a congratulatory letter (with side-burn advice), enclosing the photograph.

The prize was awarded 'for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material'.

"It didn't occur to me that our discovery was prizeworthy until as late as 1956..." Crick, 'What Mad Pursuit' (1988), 81.

The presentation speech by Professor A. Engström described the importance of the discovery of the three-dimensional molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid – DNA:

“… it outlines the possibilities for an understanding in its finest details of the molecular configuration, which dictates the general and individual properties of living matter. DNA is the substance which is the carrier of heredity in higher organisms…

…The code contained in the deoxyribonucleic acid is transferred in cell division, that is in the normal growth of the organism, and also in the fusion of the sexual cells. In this way the code of the deoxyribonucleic acid can start and control the development of a new individual which has striking similarities with its parents.

Today no one can really ascertain the consequences of this new exact knowledge of the mechanisms of heredity. We can foresee new possibilities to conquer disease and to gain better knowledge of the interaction of heredity and environment and a greater understanding for the mechanisms of the origin of life. In whatever direction we look we see new vistas. We can, through the discovery by Crick, Watson and Wilkins, to quote John Kendrew, see ‘the first glimpses of a new world’.”

Further reading

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962