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[This goes in the nomination is based on box] Few scientists can lay claim to completely revising our view of life on Earth. Recognizing that ribosomal RNAs hold a history of life, Carl Woese inferred relationships among microorganisms, leading to a universal tree of life that describes natural relationships. The rRNA-based tree provides a basis for diagnosis and treatment microbial infectious disease. [This goes in the main large box of the form] Using methods that by today’s standards would be considered primitive, Woese devised an approach to “fingerprint” the 16S ribosomal RNAs, critical components of a cell’s protein translation machinery (1-5). Woese’s painstaking and penetrating analysis led him to recognize that an assortment of unusual microbes contained a 16S rRNA pattern as similar to those of eukaryotes as to those of typical bacteria (6,7). Woese recognized the enormous significance of this finding, that there is a third domain of life, naming those microbes with this distinctive 16S rRNA pattern the Archaebacteria (7), and later just Archaea (8), in order to distinguish them from other prokaryotes. Although Woese’s conclusions were controversial for many years, characterization of more than 20,000 rRNA genes (9-16) and recent sequencing of the entire genomes of nearly 100 microorganisms, including 11 archaea (17,18), has substantiated Woese’s major proposition and thus elevated Woese’s singlehanded scientific contribution to one of the greatest discoveries in the history of biology. In addition to its impact on the study of evolution, integrating all organisms into a universal tree of life has transformed medical microbiology (e.g., Fredricks, D. N., and Relman, D. A. 1998. Improved amplification of microbial DNA from blood cultures by removal of the PCR inhibitor sodium polyanetholesulfonate. J. Clin. Microbiol. 36: 2810–2816). Knowledge of natural relationships among living things has greatly expanded our understanding of pathogens (9-16), and enabled more informed approaches to treatment. In combination with modern molecular methods, rRNAs now provide the bases for rapid, sensitive and specific identification of pathogenic microorganisms. With a database of rRNA sequences and a phylogenetic framework of previously described organisms (19), molecular methods are being used to detect and phylogenetically characterize new microorganisms in clinical contexts. In summary, Carl Woese’s magnificent discoveries have benefited humankind in significant ways by revealing a previously unknown realm of life and by giving a generation of medical scientists powerful new tools with which to diagnose and combat infectious disease.