THE NEXT PHASE OF THE HUMAN GENOME PROJECT will require the development of powerful data analysis methods to match gene sequences with inherited traits, mutations, and susceptibilities to specific diseases. "These challenges," says Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, "are in many ways closer to the physical and engineering sciences than they are to classical biology."

Indeed, searching the Physics News Update archive turns up 31 hits for "DNA," as well as 4 hits for "genome." Highlights include a 1994 American Physical Society news conference featuring physics-based contributions to improving the DNA sequencing method known as gel electrophoresis (Update 171); the first movies of important processes such as DNA replication (Update 312); and the emergence of DNA chips for analyzing genetic fragments in everything from crime scenes to disease diagnosis (Update 311). A similar search for "genome" on the Online Journal Publishing Service, which is keyed to the journals of AIP and its member societies, for the past 6 months turns up these entries: Nilsson and Snoad (Physical Review Letters, 3 Jan /pnu/2000/) discuss error thresholds for "quasispecies" on "fitness landscapes" used in modeling evolution. Bornholdt and Rohlf (Physical Review Letters, 26 June /pnu/2000/) describe topological evolution of dynamical networks such as genes, neural networks, food webs, and species relationships. Viera (Physical Review E, Nov 1999) writes about statistical properties of 13 microbial complete genomes. Tanida (Optics Letters, 1 Dec 1999) describes optical computing techniques used in performing string alignments in genome analysis. (Science journalists can obtain copies of all articles mentioned.)