 In Crick's view, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, Gregor Mendel's genetics and knowledge of the molecular basis of genetics, when combined, revealed the secret of life.Crick had the very optimistic view that life would very soon be created in a test tube.However, some people (such as fellow researcher and colleague Esther Lederberg) thought that Crick was unduly optimistic

It was clear that some macromolecule such as a protein was likely to be the genetic molecule.