"The Physical Properties of Cytoplasm: A Study by Means of the Magnetic Particle Method. Part I. Experimental. With: CRICK, F. [Francis] H. C.: "The Physical Properties of Cytoplasm: A Study by Means of the Magnetic Particle Method. Part II. Theoretical Treatment. In: Experimental Cell Research, Volume I, 1950, pp. 37-80 (including 17 figs. and 1 plate) and pp. 505-533 (including 1 fig. and 4 tables). Entire journal volume offered. FRANCIS CRICK'S FIRST TWO PUBLICATIONS.

CRICK, F. [Francis] H. C. & A. [Arthur] F. W.Hughes

Published by New York: Academic Press (Printed in Sweden, Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksells), 1950.

About this Item

viii, 612 pp; illus. Library buckram. Xlib: "Eugene Shedden Farley Library" ink stamp on all fore edges of pages; ink number stamped in bottom margin of p. v and of p. 612. Aside from these library markings, Very Good. I can send photos of the library buckram binding, and of the library ink stamps, upon request. First Edition. In his autobiography What Mad Pursuit, Crick wrote about this research project: "I realised that in a superficial way it was ideal for me, since the only scientific subjects I was fairly familiar with were magnetism and hydrodynamics. . . . this led to my first published papers [offered here]. But the main advantage was that the work was not too demanding and left me plenty of time for extensive reading in my new subject. It was then that I began in a very tentative way to form my ideas" (p. 22). In his biography of Francis Crick, Robert Olby writes at length about the role this first research project in biology played in Crick's scientific career: "Not only does this 1950 paper [Part I] supply us with examples of Crick's piercing critique and concern for the quality of experimental evidence, it also offers us a preview of his conception of the relationship between theory and experiment. Without a general theory of the structure of elastic liquids, such as the cytoplasm, he warned, 'it is not yet possible to relate features of their behaviour with features of their structure.' He suggested in vitro experiments with 'crude protein solutions, or possibly a suspension of Claude's microsomes, etc., to see how magnetic particles behave in them.' But superficial similarities might prove misleading: 'To discover which features of a model are essential to give the properties measured, and which are accidental . . . it is necessary to have a theory, however crude, to account for at least some of the observable features'. . . . Nothing of any significance came from this work, although references to it continued for some time. . . . Crick shared with Hughes the authorship of this, his first paper. Some passages giving considerable experimental details suggest Hughes' authorship, others remind us of the later Crick, but the critique of the literature . . . is vintage Crick. . . . A second paper on the physical theory underlying the experiments, with Crick's name as sole author, he put together from sources he knew in physics" (Olby, Francis Crick, Hunter of Life's Secrets, pp. 73-76; the entire discussion of Crick's time at the Strangeways Research Laboratory in Cambridge is on pp. 67-82).

Seller Inventory # 16843

Bibliographic Details

• Title: "The Physical Properties of Cytoplasm: A Study by Means of the Magnetic Particle Method. Part I. Experimental. With: CRICK, F. [Francis] H. C.: "The Physical Properties of Cytoplasm: A Study by Means of the Magnetic Particle Method. Part II. Theoretical Treatment. In: Experimental Cell Research, Volume I, 1950, pp. 37-80 (including 17 figs. and 1 plate) and pp. 505-533 (including 1 fig. and 4 tables). Entire journal volume offered. FRANCIS CRICK'S FIRST TWO PUBLICATIONS.
• Publisher: New York: Academic Press (Printed in Sweden, Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksells), 1950.
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good