Reviews in Agricultural Science Vol 4 (2016)

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Doi: 10.7831/ras.4.66 c EDITORIAL OPEN ACCESS CORPUS OF FRANCIS CRICK’S RESEARCH PAPERS: USEFUL GUIDES IN MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS Sachi Sri Kantha

Section of General Education, Gifu University, 1-1 Yanagido, Gifu 501-1193, Japan

ABSTRACT In this editorial, Francis Crick’s research corpus of 105 papers, spanning from 1950 to 2013, is promoted as useful guides in manuscript preparation for graduate students. Especially to be noted is Crick and his co-authors’ versatility in formulating the different components of a research paper such as, title composition, abstract writing, brevity in describing the experimental results or hypotheses, discussion and/or future projections, and acknowledgment composition. Keywords: bibliography, DNA, molecular biology, neuroscience, scientiﬁc productivity

Introduction org/collections/digital-collections/makers-of-modern-genetics/ As the birth centenary of Francis Harry Compton Crick (1916 digitised-archives/francis-crick/. – 2004), one of the founders of molecular biology, is celebrated [PLEASE NOTE: As this bibliography is chronologically this year, I venture to contribute my share to Crick scholarship. arranged, it is not in alphabetical order of authors, as stipulated for By general consensus, Crick was a multi-faceted scientist, a this journal’s contributions.] great thinker (a theorist par excellence and provocateur), science expositor and a prolific writer. For his pioneering efforts in Commentary elucidating the DNA double helical model in 1953, Crick shared A synopsis of Crick’s scientiﬁc career is presented in Table 1. In the 1962 Nobel Prize in medicine/physiology with his junior describing his career, Crick had observed, “I myself was forced to collaborator James D. Watson and Maurice Wilkins. call myself a molecular biologist because when inquiring clergymen asked me what I did, I got tired of explaining that I was a mixture Crick's contributions to science journals on varied research of crystallographer, biophysicist, biochemist and geneticist, an themes, including crystallography, molecular biology, embryonic explanation which in any case they found too hard to grasp.” (Crick, entomology, neuroscience, somnology (scientific study of sleep) 1965) Subsequently, after he moved to San Diego, USA, in 1976, and behavior from 1950 to 2013 possess a high degree of clarity and Crick switched his interests to neuroscience too. brevity. As such, I believe that Crick’s corpus of 105 research papers can serve as useful guides in manuscript preparation for neophyte In Table 2, I provide a classification of Crick corpus of graduate students who wander into this territory with trepidation. papers, based on six speciﬁc categories. These are, experimental (crystallography) papers, hypothesis papers, challenging the Bibliography status-quo papers, expository (popular) articles, future projection To promote my opinion, I present a Crick chronological papers and retrospective papers. It should be noted that these bibliography of published papers at the end (see, Appendix categories are arbitrary and not exclusive of each other. below). This material was culled from standard databases such as PubMed, Profiles in Science National Library of Medicine What is perhaps useful for graduate students and budding https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/SC/, Web of Science, SCOPUS and young scientists in post-doctoral phase is the fact that majority of Wellcome Library Francis Crick Papers http://wellcomelibrary. Crick’s papers are comparatively short. As is shown in Table 3,

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Doi: 10.7831/ras.4.66 c among the 105 papers, 83% do not exceed more than 10 printed Crystallogr., 5: 381-386. pages (including tables, figures and other illustrations) More than half (56 papers) of Crick’s papers do not exceed more than Cochran W, Crick FHC and Vand V (1953). The structure of five printed pages. Such brevity is valued by journal editors in synthetic polypeptides. I. The transform of atoms on a helix. Acta describing the experimental results or hypotheses. Crick also Crystallogr., 5: 581-586. practiced brevity in titling some of his papers with two or three words. Here are some examples: Codes without commas (Crick Cochran W and Crick FHC (1952). Evidence for the Pauling- et al, 1957), Diffusion in Embryogenesis (Crick, 1970a), Directed Corey α-helix in synthetic polypeptides. Nature, 169: 234-235. panspermia (Crick and Orgel, 1973), Kinky helix (Crick and Klug, 1975), Selfish DNA (Orgel et al, 1980), DNA today (Crick 1982b), Crick FHC (1952). Extractability of the Lotmar-Picken Neural Edelmanism (Crick, 1989), and The Zombie within (Koch material from dried muscle. Nature, 170: 882-883. and Crick, 2001). Crick FHC (1953a). The Fourier transform of a coiled-coil. Crick also wrote four popular books in science, among which Acta Crystallogr., 6: 685-689. one was his memoir ‘What Mad Pursuit’(1988). Other three books include, ‘Of Molecules and Men’ (1966), ‘Life Itself: Its Crick FHC (1953b). The packing of α-helices: simple coiled- Origin and Nature’ (1981) and ‘The Astonishing Hypothesis’ coils. Acta Crystallogr., 6: 689-697. (1994). (Fig. 1). Furthermore, as a trend-setter and path breaker in new disciplines, Crick was also fond of introducing new terms Watson JD and Crick FHC (1953a). A structure for to science lexicon. These include, rumination – referring to the Deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature, 171: 737-738. dreams we do not remember and ‘reverse learning’ (Crick and Mitchison, 1983), Neural Edelmanism – referring to the novel Watson JD and Crick FHC (1953b). Genetical implications of concept of ‘Neural Darwinism’ proposed by Gerald Edelman the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid. Nature, 171: 964-967. (Crick, 1989, 1990) and zombie agents (Koch and Crick, 2001). Watson JD and Crick FHC (1953c). The structure of DNA. In his preface to ‘The Astonishing Hypothesis’, Crick had Cold Spring Harbor Symp Quant Biol., 18: 123-131. written, There is no form of prose more difficult to understand and more tedious to read than the average scientific paper.’ This is Crick FHC (1954a). A structure for collagen. J Chem Phys., obviously true. But, Crick’s scientific papers are exceptions to this 22: 347-348. truism. In conclusion, I’d suggest that many of us have our idol singers, idol actors, idol sportsmen and idol novelists. In a similar Crick FHC (1954b). The complementary structure of DNA. vein, young science students who are keen on improving their Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 40: 756-758. paper writing skills will benefit much from the corpus of papers left to us by Crick. With a degree of pride, this scientist can attest Crick FHC (1954c). The structure of the hereditary material. that he was a beneficiary of Crick’s expressive writing, when he Sci Amer., 191(4): 54-61. chose Crick as his idol scientist three decades ago. Crick FHC and Watson JD (1954). The complimentary structure Appendix: Chronological Bibliography of Francis Crick of deoxyribonucleic acid. Proc Roy Soc Lond., A 223: 80-96. Crick FHC and Hughes AFW (1950). The physical properties of cytoplasm. A study by means of the magnetic particle method. Crick FHC and Rich A (1955). Structure of polyglycine II. Part I. Experimental. Exp Cell Res., 1(1): 37-80. Nature, 176: 780-781.

Crick FHC (1950). The physical properties of cytoplasm. Rich A and Crick FHC (1955). The structure of collagen. A study by means of the magnetic particle method. Part II. Nature, 176: 915-916. Theoretical treatment. Exp. Cell Res., 1(4): 505-533. Crick FHC (1952). The height of the vector rods in the Magdoff BS and Crick FHC (1955a). Ribonuclease II. Accuracy three dimensional Patterson of haemoglobin. The structure of of measurement and shrinkage. Acta Crystallogr., 8: 461-468. synthetic polypeptides. I. The transform of atoms on a helix. Acta

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Magdoff BS, Crick FHC (1955b). A new crystal form of molecular structure of polyadenylic acid. J Mol Biol., 3: 71-86. ribonuclease. Acta Crystallogr., 8: 468-472. Crick FHC (1962). The genetic code. Sci Amer., 207(4): 66-74. Magdoff BS, Crick FHC and Luzzati V (1956). The three- dimensional Patterson function of ribonuclease. Acta Crystallogr., Crick FHC (1963). On the genetic code. Science, 139: 461-464 9: 156-162. [Nobel award lecture]

Crick FHC and Magdoff BS (1956). The theory of the Crick FHC and Orgel LE (1964). The theory of inter-allelic method of isomorphous replacement for protein crystals. I. Acta complementation. J Mol Biol ., 8: 161-165. Crystallogr., 9: 901-908. Crick FHC (1965). Recent research in molecular biology: Crick FHC (1956). Ox haemoglobin: Preliminary X-ray Introduction. Br Med Bull., 21(3): 183-186. studies. Acta Crystallogr., 9: 908-910. Crick FHC (1966a). Codon-Anticodon pairing: The wobble Crick FHC and Watson JD (1956). Structure of small viruses. hypothesis. J Mol Biol., 19: 548-555. Nature, 177: 473-475. Crick FHC (1966b). The genetic code. III. Sci. Amer., 215(4): Crick FHC (1957). Nucleic acids. Sci Amer., 197(3): 188-200. 55-62.

Crick FHC, Griffith JS and Orgel LE (1957). Codes without Crick FH (1966). The genetic code – Yesterday, Today and commas. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 43: 416-421. Tomorrow. Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant Biol., 31: 3-9.

Crick FHC and Kendrew JC (1957). X-ray analysis and protein Crick FHC (1967). Origin of the genetic code. Nature, 213: 119. structure. Adv Protein Chem., 12: 133-214. Brenner S, Barnett L, Katz ER and Crick FHC (1967). UGA: a Crick FHC (1958). On protein synthesis. Symp Soc Exp Biol., third nonsense triplet in the Genetic Code. Nature, 213: 449-450. 12: 138-163. Crick FHC (1967a). An error in model building. Nature, 213: 798. Klug A, Crick FHC and Wyckoff HW (1958). Diffraction by helical structures. Acta Crystallogr., 11: 199-213. Crick FHC (1967b). The genetic code. Proc Roy Soc Lond B Biol Sci., 167(9): 331-347. Crick FHC (1959). The present position of the coding problem. Brookhaven Symp Biol., 12: 35-39. Crick FH and Brenner S (1967). The absolute sign of certain phase-shift mutants in Bacteriophage T4. J Mol Biol., 26: 361-363. Blow DM and Crick FHC (1959). The treatment of errors in the isomorphous replacement method. Acta Crystallogr., 12: 794-802. Crick FHC (1968a). On running a summer school. Nature, 220: 1275-1276. Brenner S, Barnett L, Crick FHC and Orgel A 1961. The theory of mutagenesis. J Mol Biol., 3: 121-124. Crick FHC (1968b). The origin of the genetic code. J Mol Biol., 38: 367-379. Crick FHC, Barnett L, Brenner S and Watts-Tobin RJ (1961). General nature of the genetic code for proteins. Nature, 192: 1227- Crick FH (1969). Molecular biology and medical research. J 1232. Mount Sinai Hosp. (New York), 36(3): 178-188.

Rich A and Crick FH (1961). The molecular structure of Crick F (1970a). Diffusion in Embryogenesis. Nature, 225: collagen. J Mol Biol., 3: 483-506. 420-422.

Rich A, Davies DK, Crick FHC and Watson JD (1961). The Crick F (1970b). Central dogma of molecular biology. Nature,

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227: 561-563. Crick F (1979a). How to live with a Golden Helix. The Sciences (New York), 19(7): 6-9. Crick F (1970c). Molecular biology in the year 2000. Nature, 228: 613-615. Crick F (1979b). Split genes and RNA splicing. Science, 204: 264-271. Crick FHC (1970d). DNA: Test of structure? Science, 167: 1694. Crick FHC (1979c). Thinking about the brain. Sci Amer., Crick F (1971a). General model for the chromosomes of 241(3): 181-188. higher organisms. Nature, 234: 25-27. Crick F (1979d). Predictions in biology. ChemTech, 9(5): 298-305. Crick FHC (1971b). The scale of pattern formation. Symp Soc Exp Biol., 25: 429-438. Prunell A, Kornberg RD, Lutter L, Klug A, Levitt M and Crick FH (1979). Periodicity of deoxyribonuclease I digestion of Munro M and Crick F (1971). The time needed to set up a chromatin. Science, 204: 855-858. gradient: detailed calculations. Symp. Soc. Exp Biol., 25: 439-453. Crick FHC, Wang JC and Bauer WR (1979). Is DNA really a Lawrence PA, Crick FHC and Munro M (1972). A gradient of double helix? J Mol Biol., 129: 449-461. positional information in an insect, Rhodnius. J Cell Sci., 11: 815-853. Orgel LE and Crick FHC (1980). Selfish DNA: the ultimate Crick FHC (1973). Project K: ‘The complete solution of E.coli’. parasite. Nature, 284: 604-607. Persp Biol Med., 17(1): 67-70. Orgel LE, Crick FHC and Sapienza C (1980). Selfish DNA. Crick FHC and Orgel LE (1973). Directed panspermia. Icarus, Nature, 288: 645-646. 19: 341-346. Bauer WR, Crick FHC and White JH (1980). Supercoiled Crick F (1974). The double helix: a personal view. Nature, DNA. Sci Amer., 241(1): 100-113. 248: 766-769. Mitchison G and Crick F (1982). Long axons within the striate Crick FHC and Klug A (1975). Kinky helix. Nature, 255: 530-533. cortex: Their distribution, orientation, and patterns of connection. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 79: 3661-3665. Crick FHC and Lawrence PA (1975). Compartments and polyclones in insect development. Science, 189: 340-347. Crick F (1982a). Do dendritic spines twitch? Trends Neurosci,, 5: 44-46. Crick FHC (1976a). Obituary: Jacques Lucien Monod. Nature, 262: 429-430. Crick F (1982b). DNA today. Persp Biol Med., 25(4): 512-517.

Crick FHC (1976b). Linking numbers and nucleosomes. Proc Crick F and Mitchison G (1983). The function of dream sleep. Natl Acad Sci USA, 73: 2639-2643. Nature, 304: 111-114.

Crick FHC, Brenner S, Lug A and Piezenik G (1976). A Crick F (1984a). Function of the thalamic reticular complex: speculation on the origin of protein synthesis. Orig Life, 7: 389-397. The searchlight hypothesis. Proc. Natl Acad Sci,, 81: 4586-4590.

Bak AL, Zeuten J and Crick FH (1977). Higher-order structure Crick F (1984b). Memory and molecular turnover. Nature, 312: of human mitotic chromosomes. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 74: 101. 1595-1599. Crick F (1987). Ruthless research in a cupboard. New Sci,, 115 Crick FH (1978). Chromosome structure and function. Future (1561): 66-68. prospects. Eur J Biochem., 83(1): 1-3.

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Crick F (1988). Neural networks and REM sleep. Biosci Rep., Philos Trans Roy Soc Lond, B Biol Sci., 354: 2021-2025. 8: 531-535. Koch C and Crick F (2001). The zombie within. Nature, 411: 893. Crick F (1989). The recent excitement about neural networks. Nature, 337: 129-132. Crick F (2002). Obituary: Max Ferdinand Perutz. Phys Today, 55(8): 62-63. Crick F (1989). Neural Edelmanism. Trends Neurosci., 12(7): 240-248. Crick F and Koch C (2003). A framework for consciousness. Nature Neurosci., 6: 119-126. Crick F (1990). Neural Edelmanism. Trends Neurosci., 13(1): 13-14. Crick F, Koch C, Kreiman G and Fried I (2004). Consciousness and neurosurgery. Neurosurgery, 55: 273-282. Crick F and Koch C (1990). Towards a neurobiological theory of consciousness. Seminar Neurosci., 2: 263-275. Crick FC and Koch C (2005). What is the function of the claustrum? Philos Trans Roy Soc B 360: 1271-1279. Crick F and Koch C (1992). The problem of consciousness. Sci Amer., 267(3): 110-117. Crick FHC and Wyman J (2013). A footnote on allostery. J Mol Biol., 425: 1500-1508. Crick F (1993). Looking backwards: a birthday card for the double helix. Gene, 135: 15-18.

Crick F and Jones E (1993). Backwardness of human neuroanatomy. Nature, 361: 109-110.

Orgel LE and Crick FHC (1993). Anticipating an RNA world: some past speculations on the Origin of Life: where are they today? FASEB J., 7: 238-239.

Crick F and Mitchison G (1995). REM sleep and neural nets. Behav Brain Res, 69: 147-155.

Crick F and Koch C (1995a). Are we aware of neural activity in primary visual cortex? Nature, 375: 121-123.

Crick F and Koch C (1995b). Why neuroscience may be able to explain consciousness. Sci Amer., 273(6): 66-67.

Crick F (1996). Visual perception: rivalry and consciousness. Nature, 379: 485-486.

Crick F and Koch C (1998a). Constraints on cortical and thalamic projections: the no-strong-loops hypothesis. Nature, 391: 245-250.

Crick F and Koch C (1998b). Consciousness and neuroscience. Cereb Cortex., 8: 97-107.

Crick F (1999). The impact of molecular biology on neuroscience.

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Table 1: Synopsis of Francis Crick’s Scientiﬁc Career Year/Period Details

1916 June 8 born at Weston Favell, Northampton, UK. 1937 graduated with Physics degree from University College, London 1937-1939 graduate student in physics at University College, London, under Edward Andrade. 1940-1947 Temporary Experimental Ofﬁcer, Royal Navy, UK. 1947-1950 studied biology, Cambridge University 1951-1955 James Watson (b. 1928) collaboration period 1953 DNA double helical model papers, co-authored with Watson. 1954 Ph.D. for X ray diffraction studies in Polypeptides and Proteins 1957-1976 Sydney Brenner (b. 1927) collaboration period. Formative period for Molecular biology as a discipline established. 1962 Nobel Prize for Medicine, shared with Watson and Maurice Wilkins 1966 ‘Of Molecules and Men’ published, aged 40. 1977 Moved to San Diego, California, USA. 1981 ‘Life Itself: Its Origin and Nature’ published, aged 65. 1981-2004 Christof Koch (b. 1956) collaboration period. Shifted focus to Neuroscience, sleep and consciousness. 1988 Memoir ‘What Mad Pursuit’ published, aged 72. 1994 ‘The Astonishing Hypothesis’ published, aged 78. 2004 July 28 died at San Diego, California, USA.

Table 2: Classiﬁcation of Crick Corpus of Papers based on Categories Categories Representative Examples

1. Experimental Papers Crick and Hughes (1950), Crick et al (1961), Rich et al. (1961)

2. Hypothesis Papers Crick and Watson (1956), Crick (1966a, 1970b, 1984a), Crick and Orgel (1973), Crick and Mitchison (1983), Crick and Koch (1998a, 2005) 3. Challenging the status-quo Papers Watson and Crick (1953a, 1953b), Crick and Klug(1975), Crick and Jones (1993), Koch and Crick (2001)

4. Expository (Popular) Articles Crick (1954c, 1957, 1962, 1966b, 1968a, 1979a, 1979c, 1987), Bauer et al (1980), Crick and Koch (1992, 1995b)

5. Future Projection Papers Crick (1970c, 1978, 1979d)

6. Retrospective Papers Crick (1974, 1982b, 1993)

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Table 3: Classiﬁcation of Crick Corpus of Papers based on Length Length of Paper (unit=no. of journal pages) Number of Papers

1 – 5 56

6 – 10 31

11 – 20 12

21 – 30 3

39 1

44 1

82 1 Total 105

Fig.1. Two books authored by Crick; his memoir What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery (1988) and his explorations about the mystery of consciousness The Astonishing Hypothesis (1994).