Nature Medicine essays: The Art of Science
  By Joseph L. Goldstein, Chair of Lasker Jury

The annual selection of Lasker winners is an invitation for the public to contemplate what constitutes great science. Are biological discoveries the result of meticulous observation, or of asking key questions in ways that have never before been asked? What are the geneses of clinical advances? What connects science and creativity? How does a series of experiments come to be regarded as "elegant" or a body of research deemed "beautiful"?

These are the topics explored by Joseph L. Goldstein, Chair of the Medical Research Awards Jury, in a series of essays on the deep relationship between art and science that appear in the annual Nature Medicine supplement that accompanies the Lasker Awards. PDFs of the essays can be accessed via the links below.

2012:  Paradigm shifts in science: insights from the arts

2011:  The card players of Caravaggio, Cézanne and Mark Twain: tips for getting lucky in high-stakes research

2010:  How to win a Lasker? Take a close look at Bathers and Bulls

2009:  Lasker Awards and papal portraiture: turning fields upside down

2008:  Exuberant unpredictability: sine qua non for priceless and prizeworthy biomedical research

2007:  Creation and revelation: two different routes to advancement in the biomedical sciences

2006:  Venture science: climbing the ladder to telomerase, cognitive therapy and in situ hybridization

2005:  60 years of winged victories for biomedical research

2004:  Towering science: an ounce of creativity is worth a ton of impact

2003:  The helix and the centerfold

2002:  Synergy and symbiosis à la Matisse-Picasso

2001:  Knockout mice and test-tube babies