Auction the first letter about DNA

One of the scientists found the DNA structure that wrote to his son to explain his discovery 60 years ago. The letter is about to be auctioned at a starting price of around £ 1.2 million.

Francis Crick, an English biologist, along with colleague Jim Watson, Maurice Wilkins, found the structure of DNA in 1953, when all three were working at Cambridge University, England.

Francis Crick (right) and the letter he sent to his son explained the DNA structure.

A week before the discovery, he wrote to his son Michael Crick, then 12 years old, to explain the DNA structure. In the letter, dated March 19, 1953, Crick said that his discovery could explain the origin of life. The biologist draws a spiral diagram in the letter to illustrate the structure of the DNA and uses the word "gorgeous" to describe it. He affirmed to his son that DNA structure will be one of the most important findings in human history.

"Dad and colleagues successfully built the structural model des-oxygen-ribose-nucleic-acid (please read it carefully), referred to as DNA for short. In other words, my team found the muscle. The basic copying mechanism for life to create life, " Crick wrote in the letter.

On April 10, Crick's letter will appear in a Christie's auction in New York City, USA. As expected, its starting price will be 1.1 million pounds, Telegraph reported.

Crick's son Michael, now a 72-year-old grandfather, lives in Seattle, USA.

"On February 28, 1953, suddenly all the data became matched and led to one of the greatest moments in the history of science. My father explained his discovery in a letter including 7 pages, " Michael recalls.

Crick and Watson and Wilkins won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1962 by discovering the DNA structure. He died in the US in 2004 because of colon cancer. He then worked at the University of California in San Diego.

According to Michael, the majority of the money he gets from the auction of the letter will be donated to neurological research activities at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California. Crick studied at the Salk Institute after leaving Cambridge University and stayed with the institute for 27 years.