Sequencing of human genome ranked as top achievement by journal

Genome sequencing ranks as the most important scientific achievement in 2000 for the journal Science. The runner-up is the release of more detailed molecular maps of the ribosome, the cell's essential protein factory.

Each year the journal lists its chosen top 10, and in most years there may have been room for disagreement. Last June's announcement that the human genome had been sequenced must stand however as the undisputed winner this year.

The journal makes its selection on the basis of a discovery's implications for society and the advancement of science. It placed genome sequencing at the top of the list with the human genome taking pride of place. It also noted that just a year ago researchers had completed the sequence for only one multi-cellular organism, the worm C elegans.

Now sequences exist for humans, the fruit fly and the weed, Arabidopsis thaliana. The sequences for the microbes that cause cholera and meningitis are catalogued and soon to come are the sequences for mice, rats, zebrafish and two species of puffer fish.

The journal offers the role of RNA in the ribosome as next in line. Work during the past 12 months provided exceptional details of ribosome structure and the leading part played by RNA in its function. The findings are significant because the ribosome is the chemical factory responsible for turning genetic information into proteins and enzymes. The journal also suggests that life on earth could have developed first as a RNA based organism, only later evolving into DNA based life.

Fossil skulls recovered from Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia and dating back some 1.7 million years are included in the list. They are thought to represent examples of the first human ancestors to have ventured out of Africa. They showed clear signs of African ancestry and were recovered in well-dated sediments that provide an accurate timing for their long ago migration.

Advanced cell manipulation, including getting adult cells to remake themselves into other cell types, cloning and stem cell research are included in the Science top 10. The techniques hint at remarkable times to come in growing replacement organs from the recipient's own tissues, but also the nightmare of cloning and its ethical quagmire.

The possibility of finding water elsewhere in this solar system stirred the world's astronomers and astrobiologists. There were signs of water flows on Mars and tantalising hints of deep salt-water oceans on Jupiter's moon, Europa. Less than two weeks ago, Jupiter's moon, Ganymede, was included as a watery candidate. The researchers are proceeding on the basis that where there is or was water, there is or was life.

Scientists opened possibilities during the year for a new Flat Universe Society following the discovery that our universe is most likely flat and will expand forever. They based their findings on recordings taken from two balloon-borne microwave detectors sent aloft to look for the cosmic microwave background, the afterglow of the Big Bang.

Our first detailed look at an asteroid also makes the top 10. The NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft went into orbit around the asteroid Eros earlier this year and is currently taking pictures from just 35 kilometres away. Early next month the spacecraft begins a final approach that will bring it to within 500 metres.

Plastic electronics, electrically conducting plastics, are included in the list because of their variety of potential uses. Discoveries in this area also won three scientists the Nobel Prize in chemistry. Innovations that could flow from the findings during 2000 include disposable mobile phones and flexible plastic computer chips.

Research into the receptor sites in cells which respond to the arrival of hormones also takes a place in the top 10. Scientists discovered dozens of new roles for these receptors, both in health and in disease. Their significance lies in their potential to help identify promising new drug therapies.

The journal's final offering are the discoveries made in the weird and wonderful world of quantum mechanics, the realm of the ultra-small where atoms look like mountains and stranger things happen than in the Land of Oz. Quantum curiosities include the ability of matter to be in two different places at once and for two electric currents to flow in opposite directions in one wire at one time.