The human genome

Is now available in two draft forms, one by an academic consortium coordinated by the National Institutes of Health and the US Department of Energy, and the other by Celera Genomics of Rockville, Maryland. Physicists have been involved with the genome project from before its beginning (see the obituary for George Irving Bell on page 85 ) and on through the heady days leading to its completion. Indeed, physicists developed many of the tools, instruments, and data-analysis methods that were vital to the biologists’ success. But drafting the genome is just the beginning. Understanding human complexity will require much more than simply spelling out the genome. In fact, many researchers with their roots in physics are already deeply involved with studying gene expression, the resulting protein structures, and the physical and chemical interactions that make us who we are. (Special issues of Nature, 15 February 2001; and Science, 16 February 2001.)