Francis Crick's entrance into the Eagle pub in Cambridge on February 28, 1953 has gone down as one of the most famous moments in history. "We've discovered the secret of life," the co-discoverer of the DNA 'double helix' is reputed to have told his stunned colleagues.

Today (July 29), Crick's family announced his death in California, at the age of 88, in a San Diego hospital. He had been suffering from colon cancer.

Francis Crick was born near Northampton in 1916. Fiercely inquisitive from a young age, he read avidly and conducted scientific experiments in his kitchen at home. After Northampton Grammar School and Mill Hill School, London, he read physics at University College, London.

The Second World War interrupted work on his PhD and Crick put his studies on hold to work for the British Admiralty, where he specialised in researching acoustic and magnetic mines.

On leaving the Admiralty in 1947, he began studying biology and came to Cambridge to work at the Strangeways Research Laboratory on a studentship from the Medical Research Council. Crick continued with his studies, joining the Cavendish Laboratory's Medical Research Council unit in 1949 and completing a PhD in 'X-ray diffraction: polypeptides and proteins' in 1954.

It was in 1951 that he first met the man with whom his name would forever be linked. Chicago-born James Watson, who had just arrived at the Cavendish, was particularly interested in the structure of nucleic acids and proteins; Crick believed that DNA was the means by which genetic information passed from one generation to the next. The two men quickly realised that they shared a common interest in unlocking the structure of DNA.

The historic moment came at their second attempt to build an accurate model of DNA - their work, in association with Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin from King's College, London, showed its structure was that of a 'double helix', like a twisted ladder.

Francis Crick's ready laugh and keen interest in the world around him made him a popular character during his many years in Cambridge. He left the city in 1976 to work at the Salk Institute in California, where he turned his attention to understanding brain development.

In addition to winning the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1962, Crick received numerous awards and honours for his work. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1959 and appointed to the Order of Merit in 1991.

Graham Allen, Academic Secretary of the University of Cambridge, paid this tribute to Crick:

"We are deeply saddened to hear of the death of Francis Crick today. The impact of his work on how we understand ourselves, and the world we live in is inestimable.

"We are grateful that Cambridge provided the intellectual setting that allowed Crick and Watson to make their pioneering contribution to the development of modern Biological Sciences."

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