In recent decades, scientific discovery has become less a matter of epiphany than corporate-funded doggedness — think the Human Genome Project or Dolly. Gone are the days of at-home laboratories and slapdash, tabletop experiments. In his new book "The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments," science writer George Johnson revisits this bygone era of solitary, hands-on — and often amateur — experimentation.

Johnson recounts, as the title suggests, the 10 most beautiful experiments ever conducted. The list includes some of the more significant moments in the development of physics, astronomy, neurology and physiology, including William Harvey’s observation of blood circulation by slicing open live snakes and A. A. Michelson’s measurement of the speed of light using his invention, the interferometer.

Although each of the 10 histories described involve a specific scientist, Johnson makes it clear that "Beautiful Experiments" is not about the men, but their work. “I’ve tried to sketch each scientist with a charcoal wash. I want the experiment, not the experimenter, to be the protagonist,” Johnson stated in the prologue.

Nonetheless, "Beautiful Experiments," released in paperback ($14) this month by Vintage, is not without a few — roughly 10 — eccentric characters. In detailing Isaac Newton’s decomposition of sunlight using a prism, Johnson describes one of Newton’s earlier, less conventional experiments with light: “As [Newton’s] interest grew into an obsession, he even experimented with his own eye, taking a thin, blunt probe and carefully inserting it ‘betwixt my eye and the bone as near the backside of my eye as I could.’”

Part of the beauty of the book is Johnson’s ability to take often complex science and make it not only understandable for the average reader, but fascinating as well. Johnson is well-practiced within the genre, being a regular science writer for The New York Times and the author of seven other books.

"Beautiful Experiments" progresses in chronological order from Galileo’s work with falling objects — in establishing his law of universal gravitation — up to Robert Millikan’s oil-drop experiment ­— the first to measure the electric charge of a single electron.

Among the more recent experiments included in Johnson’s collection is Ivan Pavlov’s now-famous work in classical conditioning, in which he trained dogs to salivate at ascending chord progressions.

Including Pavlov’s drooling dogs in a book claiming to describe “beautiful experiments” does little to moderate the unavoidable debate surrounding the provocatively titled book. The selection of the experiments is something the author himself acknowledges and defends; “I hope that there is art in the arbitrariness, both in my selection of the experiments and in what I have chosen to tell about each one.”

While "The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments" may not represent a definitive list, Johnson’s book is certainly informative, comprehensible and debatable.

Reach reporter Joe Darda at arts@dailyuw.com.