Editing Francis Crick (section)

==Early life and education==
Crick was the first son of Harry Crick and Annie Elizabeth Crick (née Wilkins). He was born on 8 June 1916<ref name=rsbm>{{cite journal|last1=Bretscher|first1=Mark S.|author-link1=Mark Bretscher|last2=Mitchison|first2=Graeme|title=Francis Harry Compton Crick OM. 8 June 1916 – 28 July 2004|journal=[[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]]|volume=63|pages=159–196|year=2017|issn=0080-4606|doi=10.1098/rsbm.2017.0010|doi-access=free}}</ref> and raised in [[Weston Favell]], then a small village near the English town of [[Northampton]], in which Crick's father and uncle ran the family's boot and shoe factory. His grandfather, [[Walter Drawbridge Crick]], an amateur [[naturalist]], wrote a survey of local [[foraminifera]] (single-celled [[protist]]s with shells), corresponded with [[Charles Darwin]],<ref>{{Cite journal|first=Charles |last=Darwin |year=1882 |title=On the Dispersal of Freshwater Bivalves |journal=Nature |volume=25 |pages=529–30 |doi=10.1038/025529f0|bibcode = 1882Natur..25R.529D |issue=649|doi-access=free }}</ref> and had two [[gastropod]]s (snails or slugs) named after him.

At an early age, Francis was attracted to science and what he could learn about it from books. As a child, he was taken to church by his parents. But by about age 12, he said he did not want to go any more as he preferred a scientific search for answers over religious belief.<ref name="CrickWMP">[[#Crick|Crick (1990)]], p. 10: "I remember telling my mother that I no longer wished to go to church".</ref>

Walter Crick, his uncle, lived in a small house on the south side of Abington Avenue; he had a shed at the bottom of his little garden where he taught Crick to blow glass, do chemical experiments and to make photographic prints. When he was eight or nine he transferred to the most junior form of the [[Northampton Grammar School]], on the Billing Road. This was about {{convert|1.25|mi|0|abbr=on}} from his home so he could walk there and back, by Park Avenue South and Abington Park Crescent, but he more often went by bus or, later, by bicycle. The teaching in the higher forms was satisfactory, but not as stimulating. After the age of 14, he was educated at [[Mill Hill School]] in London (on a scholarship), where he studied mathematics, [[physics]], and [[chemistry]] with his best friend John Shilston. He shared the Walter Knox Prize for Chemistry on Mill Hill School's Foundation Day, Friday, 7 July 1933. He declared that his success was founded on the quality of teaching he received whilst a pupil at Mill Hill.

Crick studied at [[University College London]] (UCL), a constituent college of the [[University of London]]<ref name="CrickWMPc1-2">[[#Crick|Crick (1990)]], Chapters 1 and 2 provide Crick's description of his early life and education.</ref> and earned a [[Bachelor of Science]] degree awarded by the University of London in 1937. Crick began a PhD at UCL, but was interrupted by [[World War II]]. He later became a PhD student<ref name=phd>{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |first=Francis Harry Compton|last=Crick |title=Polypeptides and proteins : X-ray studies |publisher=University of Cambridge |year=1954 |url=https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/250994 |oclc=879394484 |id={{EThOS|uk.bl.ethos.598146}}}}</ref> and Honorary Fellow of [[Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]], and mainly worked at the [[Cavendish Laboratory]] and the [[Medical Research Council (UK)|Medical Research Council]] (MRC) [[Laboratory of Molecular Biology]] in Cambridge. He was also an Honorary Fellow of [[Churchill College, Cambridge]], and of [[University College London]].

Crick began a PhD research project on measuring the [[viscosity]] of water at high temperatures (which he later described as "the dullest problem imaginable"<ref name="CrickWMP13">[[#Crick|Crick (1990)]], p. 13</ref>) in the laboratory of physicist [[Edward Andrade|Edward Neville da Costa Andrade]] at University College London, but with the outbreak of [[World War II]] (in particular, an incident during the [[Battle of Britain]] when a bomb fell through the roof of the laboratory and destroyed his experimental apparatus),<ref name=Obituary/> Crick was deflected from a possible career in physics. During his second year as a PhD student, however, he was awarded the Carey Foster Research Prize, a great honour.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Olby, Robert |volume=99|issue=4|title= The Making of Modern Science: Biographical Studies |year=1970|page= 941|journal=Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences}}</ref> He did postdoctoral work at the [[New York University Tandon School of Engineering#Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute|Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute]],<ref name="science20.com">{{cite news|last1=White|first1=Michael|title=Francis Crick as Late Bloomer|url=http://www.science20.com/adaptive_complexity/blog/francis_crick_late_bloomer|access-date=11 January 2017|work=Science 2.0|publisher=ION Publications LLC|date=3 October 2009}}</ref> now part of the [[New York University Tandon School of Engineering]].

During World War II, he worked for the [[Admiralty Research Laboratory]], from which many notable scientists emerged, including [[David Bates (physicist)|David Bates]], [[Robert Boyd (physicist)|Robert Boyd]], [[Thomas Frohock Gaskell|Thomas Gaskell]], [[George Deacon]], [[John Currie Gunn|John Gunn]], [[Harrie Massey]], and [[Nevill Mott]];<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cruise |first=A. M. |date=2004-02-11 |title=Sir Robert Boyd |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2004/feb/11/obituaries.spaceexploration |access-date=2023-10-08 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> he worked on the design of [[Electromagnetism|magnetic]] and acoustic [[Naval mine|mines]] and was instrumental in designing a new mine that was effective against German [[minesweeper (ship)|minesweepers]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://genome.wellcome.ac.uk/doc_wtd021051.html |title=Bio at Wellcome Trust |publisher=Genome.wellcome.ac.uk |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070426215937/http://genome.wellcome.ac.uk/doc_WTD021051.html |archive-date=26 April 2007}}</ref>