Re: Nominate the most beautiful biology experiment ever

"Lesley Robertson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> >
> I would nominate Beijerinck's TMV experiments - people dismissed tobacco
> mosaic disease as a chemical effect until he came up with the very simple
> idea of streaking filtrate from damaged leaves onto fresh leaves through
> several generations, and showing that the effect wasn't diluted out. It
> seems obvious to us now, but perhaps some of the most beautiful
experiments
> were the ones which look so simple now.
> I have to declare an interest - I'm the Curator of the Delft Microbiology
> Archives!
> Lesley Robertson
> http://www.beijerinck.bt.tudelft.nl
>
>
An interesting exercise is to go to a good library and thumb thru papers in
J.Hygiene or Lancet dating between about 1912 and 1930.  Many of the
manuscripts are, in hindsight, amusing.  Quite a few are AMAZING.

There was a lot of very ingenious work done back then that laid the
foundation for what we know today.

Those of you who teach (I don't) should make your students aware of some of
the amazing stuff that was done long before we all had computers and digital
everything in the lab.

And get together with the lit. faculty to make the kids read Arrowsmith.