--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: It is one of the striking generalizations…" description: "\"“It is one of the striking generalizations of biochemistry—which surprisingly is hardly ever mentioned in the biochemical text-books—that the twenty am..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/22a/francis-crick-8439_amino-acids_it-is-one-of-the-striking-generalization_249640.png" --- # It is one of the striking generalizations of… ![“It is one of the striking generalizations of biochemistry—which surprisingly is hardly ever mentioned in the biochemical text-books—that the twenty amino acids and the four bases, are, with minor reservations, the same throughout Nature. As far as I am aware the presently accepted set of twenty…” quote by Francis Crick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/22a/francis-crick-8439_amino-acids_it-is-one-of-the-striking-generalization_249640.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/22a/francis-crick-8439_amino-acids_it-is-one-of-the-striking-generalization_249640.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/22a/francis-crick-8439_amino-acids_it-is-one-of-the-striking-generalization_249640.png) > ““It is one of the striking generalizations of biochemistry—which surprisingly is hardly ever mentioned in the biochemical text-books—that the twenty amino acids and the four bases, are, with minor reservations, the same throughout Nature. As far as I am aware the presently accepted set of twenty amino acids was first drawn up by Watson and myself in the summer of 1953 in response to a letter of Gamow 's.”” [Francis Crick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-crick/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The twenty amino acids and four DNA bases are nearly universal across all living organisms, a fact rarely highlighted in textbooks. **In simple terms:** Amino acids and DNA bases are almost the same everywhere. Key Takeaway Recognize the deep chemical unity of life. Themes biology chemistry evolution universality Mood curious inquisitive Type scientific informative When to use this quote - research labs - education - comparative genomics - biotech development Key Concepts genetic code molecular biology conservation Questions to Reflect On - How does this universality impact drug design? - What does it suggest about the origin of life? A Different Perspective Assumes no unknown exceptions; rare extremophiles may differ. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Amino acids](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/amino-acids/) [Biochemistry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/biochemistry/) [Evolution](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/evolution/) [Nature](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nature/) [Nobel-laureate](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nobel-laureate/) [Science](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/science/) [Striking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/striking/) ## Related quotes > [It is one of the more striking generalizations of biochemistry - which surprisingly is hardly ever mentioned in the biochemical textbooks - that the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-crick/it-is-one-of-the-more-striking-generalizations-of-biochemistry-which/) [Francis Crick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-crick/) > [“You could give Aristotle a tutorial. And you could thrill him to the core of his being. 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He seemed to have very strong biological intuitions but unfortunately…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-crick/in-my-experience-most-mathematicians-are-intellectually-lazy-and/) [Francis Crick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-crick/) > [It is notoriously difficult to define the word living.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-crick/it-is-notoriously-difficult-to-define-the-word-living/) [Francis Crick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-crick/) > [We've discovered the secret of life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-crick/we-ve-discovered-the-secret-of-life/) [Francis Crick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-crick/) > [The major credit I think Jim and I deserve ... is for selecting the right problem and sticking to it. It's true that by…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-crick/the-major-credit-i-think-jim-and-i-deserve-is-for-selecting-the-right/) [Francis Crick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-crick/) > [The ultimate aim of the modern movement in biology is in fact to explain all biology in terms of physics and chemistry.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-crick/the-ultimate-aim-of-the-modern-movement-in-biology-is-in-fact-to/) [Francis Crick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-crick/) > [One of the most frightening things in the Western world, and in this country in particular, is the number of people who believe in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-crick/one-of-the-most-frightening-things-in-the-western-world-and-in-this/) [Francis Crick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-crick/) > [For simplicity one can think of the + class as having one extra base at some point or other in the genetic message and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-crick/for-simplicity-one-can-think-of-the-class-as-having-one-extra-base-at/) [Francis Crick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-crick/) > [God is a hacker, not an engineer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-crick/god-is-a-hacker-not-an-engineer/) [Francis Crick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-crick/) > [There is no form of prose more difficult to understand and more tedious to read than the average scientific paper.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-crick/there-is-no-form-of-prose-more-difficult-to-understand-and-more/) [Francis Crick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-crick/) > [Finally one should add that in spite of the great complexity of protein synthesis and in spite of the considerable technical difficulties in synthesizing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-crick/finally-one-should-add-that-in-spite-of-the-great-complexity-of/) [Francis Crick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-crick/) > [Unfortunately it makes the unambiguous determination of triplets by these methods much more difficult than would be the case if there were only one…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-crick/unfortunately-it-makes-the-unambiguous-determination-of-triplets-by/) [Francis Crick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-crick/) > [ I also suspect that many workers in this field \[molecular biology\] and related fields have been strongly motivated by the desire, rarely actually expressed,… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-crick/i-also-suspect-that-many-workers-in-this-field-molecular-biology-and/) [Francis Crick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-crick/) > [What could be more foolish than to base one's entire view of life on ideas that, however plausible at the time, now appear to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-crick/what-could-be-more-foolish-than-to-base-one-s-entire-view-of-life-on/) [Francis Crick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-crick/) > [If, for example, all the codons are triplets, then in addition to the correct reading of the message, there are two incorrect readings which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-crick/if-for-example-all-the-codons-are-triplets-then-in-addition-to-the/) [Francis Crick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-crick/) > [It seems likely that most if not all the genetic information in any organism is carried by nucleic acid - usually by DNA, although…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francis-crick/it-seems-likely-that-most-if-not-all-the-genetic-information-in-any/) [Francis Crick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-crick/) [Explore all 81 Francis Crick quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francis-crick/) ## More Amino acids quotes > [“The regular consumption of amino acids improved my health.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-magee/the-regular-consumption-of-amino-acids-improved-my-health/) [Steven Magee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-magee/) > [“The clothes you're wearing, the room, the house, the city that you're in. 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