To feel as full of spirit as the month of May, wander through this issue of GEN and gather some of biotechnology’s most wondrous blooms: viral vectors, CRISPR screens, and microbiome-augmented cancer immunotherapies. In every case, practicality and beauty coincide because biotechnology is, as usual, working at the finest level, which is to say, the level of molecular mechanisms. Truly, as a poet once said, “nature is never spent; there lives the dearest freshness deep down things.” If readers need any more inspiration, they can discover how discoveries in viral evolution will help us manage pandemics, and how self-regulating biomanufacturing systems will yield novel biotherapeutics.