What is a Beautiful Experiment?

This article starts an engagement on the aesthetics of experiments and offers an account for analysing how aesthetics features in the design, evaluation and reception of experiments. I identify two dimensions of aesthetic evaluation of experiments: design and significance. When it comes to design, a number of qualities, such as simplicity, economy and aptness, are analysed and illustrated with the famous Meselson-Stahl experiment. Beautiful experiments are also regarded to make significant discoveries, but I argue against a narrow construal of experimental aims. By drawing on the plurality of goals experimenters have and diversity of aesthetic responses, I argue that experiments are aesthetically appreciated both when they discover and when they produce disruptive results.

Automated summary

This article explores the aesthetics of experiments and provides a framework for analyzing how aesthetics features in the design, evaluation, and reception. Design and significance are identified as the two dimensions of aesthetic evaluation. The qualities of simplicity, economy, and aptness in design are analyzed using the Meselson-Stahl experiment as an example. The article argues against a narrow interpretation of experimental aims and highlights the diversity of aesthetic responses to experiments.