Meselson, Stahl, and the Replication of DNA: A History of “The Most Beautiful Experiment in Biology”

by Frederic Lawrence Holmes, Ph.D., Avalon Professor and chair of the Department of the History of Medicine

Yale University Press (New Haven) 2001

This book vividly reconstructs the complex route that led to the Meselson-Stahl experiment confirming that DNA replicates as predicted by Watson and Crick’s double-helix structure. It also provides an inside view of day-to-day scientific research—its unpredictability, excitement, intellectual challenge and serendipitous windfalls, as well as its frustrations, unexpected diversions and chronic uncertainty. Holmes uses research logs, experimental films, correspondence and interviews with the participants to record the history of Meselson and Stahl’s research, from their first thinking about the problem through the publication of their dramatic results. Holmes also reviews the scientific community’s reception of the experiment, the experiment’s influence on later investigations and the reasons for its reputation as an exceptionally beautiful experiment.