October 2007 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication in the Australian Journal of Science of Frank Macfarlane Burnet’s clonal selection theory, an intellectual framework that revolutionized the field of immunology.

Nature Immunology celebrates the event in an editorial (Nature Immunology 8, 1009; 2007) and a historical Commentary by Philip Hodgkin, William Heath and Alan Baxter (Nature Immunology 8, 1019-1026; 2007). Accompanying this Commentary is the two-page manuscript from the Australian Journal of Science in which Frank Macfarlane Burnet presented clearly for the first time the ideas that underlie the modern science of immunology (reprinted with permission from the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science).

Nature Reviews Immunology celebrates the achievement by a Viewpoint article in which Melvin Cohn, N. Av Mitchison, William E. Paul, Arthur M. Silverstein, David W. Talmage and Martin Weigert, scientists working or who have worked in the field, provide their thoughts and opinions (Nature Reviews Immunology 7, 823-830; 2007).

From the Nature Immunology historical Commentary:

Rarely has a field as large and influential been gathered together and encapsulated in so spare a form. The modern reader can still appreciate the paper’s brevity, clarity and masterly exposition of scientific method. It is worth rereading not only for its significant historical importance, but also because we see the individual creative scientist at work. Burnet’s personal ambition to solve the problem of antibody specificity is clear, and he leaves plenty of clues for us to trace the evolution of the ideas that led to his solution and identify the colleagues who helped in its formulation. There is also mystery associated with the paper, such as why it is in such an obscure journal and what David Talmage’s impact was on Burnet’s ideas. Speculation on these issues has kept interest in the paper high over the decades.