Francis Crick Isn't Always Right

 
A few days ago I posted pictures of the telegram notifying Francis Crick that he had won the Nobel Prize [Wellcome Trust Images]. The photos were from the Wellcome Images website.

Since then, a number of bloggers have commented on a brief note that Crick wrote on the back of a letter in 1989. I deliberately skipped that image last week because I thought it was embarrassing. I still do, in spite of the fact that the famous PZ Myers has declared it a nice quote [That's a nice quote].

What's so nice about it? It looks pretty stupid to me. What is there about DNA that gives support to evolution by natural selection—or even just "evolution" for that matter? Are my fellow bloggers just mesmorized by the juxtaposition of Francis Crick's name with the words "evolution" and "natural selection"?

Remember that 1989 corresponds to Crick's dotty period in La Jolla.

[Some people will argue that the sequences of various DNA's from different species lend support to evolution. Of course that's true but it's not what Crick wrote and I doubt very much it's what he meant. He was probably thinking about the beauty of the DNA molecule and it's appearance of "design" by natural selection.]