Seeking biology's most beautiful

Confident in the inherent beauty of the way biologists practice their craft, the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) is asking its members, and anyone else with an interest, to identify biology's most beautiful experiments. Inspired by a similar campaign held by Physics World to find the most beautiful physics experiments and by the 2001 Frederic Lawrence Holmes book, Meselson, Stahl, and the Replication of DNA: A History of The Most Beautiful Experiment in Biology, the AIBS is asking biologists to submit candidates for experimental biology's beauties through the end of 2003.

Those offering submissions must make their case in no more than 500 words. A panel of four judges, composed of scientists as well as historians and philosophers of science, will judge the entries, and the AIBS journal BioScience will feature the top picks in a series of essays commissioned from experts.

According to BioScience Editor Tim Beardsley, the ...