Matthew Cobb

I said, well, it starts with that and closes in a way because it closes with a rather nice poem that McClure wrote for him, finished on the day of his death in 2004.

So I put in as much as I could find, but there was very, very little.

We know that he signed, along with all four Beatles, a petition for the legalization of cannabis in 1967, which was very, very scandalous at the time.

He was the only fellow of the Royal Society to sign it.

And he was an ardent defender of that idea.

And he used cannabis quite regularly, I think.

LSD, not quite so often.

But certainly in the second half of the 60s, that was something that he...

experimented with and enjoyed or was fascinated by its effects on perception because his interest was moving away from molecular genetics towards thinking about that other great issue, consciousness.

And now we've got this drug which is not just, you know, changing the way alcohol or caffeine changes your mind, but this is completely altering your perception.

And that, I think, intrigued him a great deal.

Well, I mean, yes and no.

He says something like, you're nothing but a pack of neurons, which is taken from Alice in Wonderland or Alice in the Looking Glass.

I can't remember which.

The one where the Queen of Hearts and all the cards are attacking her.

And she says, you're nothing but a pack of cards.

And they all disappear.

So Crick is saying, we're nothing but a pack of neurons.

And in fact, a folk singer wrote a song about it, which he was very taken with.

So, I mean, it is astonishing.