what the world is reading

We have heard it so many times before, but in restatement this week it appears even more compelling. The Economist June 14 claims: 8220;What physics was to the 20th century, biology will be to the 21st.8221; Its cover story explains the RNA revolution of the past couple of years to substantiate two commonalities between advances in physics then and in the life sciences now: 8220;Physics gave two things to the 20th century. The most obvious gift was power over nature. It also brought an understanding of the vastness of the universe and humanity8217;s insignificant place in it.8221; Ribonucleic acid has so far been understood as a link between DNA and protein synthesis. But now it seems it could be key to understanding humanity itself. Genome projects have presented a bewildering, and sobering, finding: 8220;Animals, be they worms, flies or people, all seem to have about the same number of genes for proteins 8212; around 20,000. Yet flies are more complex than worms, and people are more complex than either. Traditional genes are thus not as important as proponents of human nature had suspected nor as proponents of nurture had feared. Instead, the solution to the puzzle seems to lie in the RNA operating system of the cells. This gets bigger with each advance in complexity. And it is noticeably different in a human from that in the brain of a chimpanzee.8221; This sets up a fascinating thesis that the operating system of each cell is in contact with all the organism8217;s other cells when it is developing.

More good news for biology. Time June 25 reports on 44-year-old Kyoto University stem-cell researcher Shinya Yamanaka8217;s spectacular breakthrough, which this month cleared intense peer review. He has 8220;found a way to genetically reprogramme an ordinary mouse skin cell to revert to the virtual equivalent of its embryonic state, in which it has the potential to grow into any kind of tissue8221;. This process does not involve the use of embryos. And it is a departure from the nuclear transfer method researchers have been pursuing, of 8220;transplanting an adult cell8217;s nucleus into an egg that had been emptied of its own genetic material8221;. By Yamanaka8217;s way, the cells themselves go back to their embryonic state. Now comes the more difficult task, of getting human adult cells to perform the feat.

Newsweek June 25 anticipates the release of the Angelina Jolie starrer, A Mighty Heart, by focusing on her attempts to help save the world. The film is based on an account by Mariane Pearl of her journalist husband Daniel8217;s abduction and death in Karachi in the months after 9/11. The story puts a contrast between Jolie8217;s activism and the charges of racism she had to field during the film8217;s shooting in Mumbai. Columnist Fareed Zakaria revisits the book to understand the current political crisis in Pakistan: 8220;It accurately shows that Pakistan8217;s national police forces were trying to find Pearl8217;s kidnappers. But the central government can claim only limited and divided authority over the country. The only institution that works in Pakistan is the military.8221; Which is why, Zakaria argues, the US should not turn its back on General Musharraf, and by extension the military.

Meanwhile: The New Statesman June 14 discusses the Pentagon-backed plan for a unified military command for Africa, tying the proposal to America8217;s projection of its future dependence on the continent8217;s oil. Businessweek June 25 explores how the Net is reviving the telecom industry.