Marshall Nirenberg

We need to admit something, dear readers.

Sometimes our website is a tad... how should we say it... facetious. We exaggerate things for comic effect. For example, we have that old profile that called Shakespeare overrated. (Some of you are still annoyed about that.) Or the recent one that called Gary Ruvkun the handsomest man ever to win the Nobel.

With apologies to Ruvkun, we were stretching the truth a bit here. (If you are not familiar with his striking good looks, his picture is readily available in the "See Also" section below.) But is he really the handsomest Nobel winner ever? That's what some of our readers are concerned about.

One long-time reader went as far as to suggest an alternative Nobel laureate: Marshall Nirenberg, who won for Medicine in 1968 for "breaking the genetic code". According to our correspondent, he has "looks of a classic Hollywood matinee idol"! Take a look at the photo on the left. Wouldn't you agree?

Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so we'll let you, dear readers, decide between Ruvkun and Nirenberg. Oh, and one more thing:

Shakespeare is really overrated.