© 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. For article fee, see p. IV.TCB, Vol. 9, N¼ 12 (0962-8924) TIBS, Vol. 24, N¼ 12 (0968-0004) TIG, Vol. 15, N¼ 12 (0168-9525)PII: S0962-8924(99)01700-6 PII: S0968-0004(99)01512-1 PII: S0168-9525(99)01938-1

Millennium issue

Editorial: A joint millennium issue

M1

The transition to the 21st century is without doubt a momentous event. It provides an opportunity for scientists, as well as the rest of society, to reflect on the

achievements of the past 1000 years, and to consider what the future might hold. We in the life-science community have alot to be proud of – many different breakthroughs and advanceshave paved the way towards our current understanding of thefascinating detail of life. We also have a lot to look forward to –the technical developments that have emerged at the end of thismillennium will provide a basis for those who come after to usto gather more information than ever before about liv-ing organisms. In terms of research potential,the year 2000 is a very good time to be a biologist.

We hope that thisexcitement will come acrossin our millennium issue.One of the reasons why thepace of research has acceler-ated so rapidly over recentyears is that the individualdisciplines have expandedto blur the lines that tradi-tionally divided them. For thethree journals that have joinedforces to produce this issue, Trendsin Biochemical Sciences (TiBS), Trends inCell Biology (TCB) and Trends in Genetics(TIG), this change has been particularly apparent. Forexample, genomics and bioinformatics now permeatemost, if not all, life-science disciplines, and structural biol-ogy is used to inform many different experimental strategies.Most biological researchers find themselves working at a cellularand molecular level at some point in their careers. This overalltheme was the main motivation for producing a joint millenniumissue – to enhance communication between biologists from dif-ferent fields and to highlight the major challenges that they faceas we enter the 21st century.

It would be impossible to survey all of life-science’s progressover the past ten years, let alone the past 1000, within a singleissue of a Trends journal. So, rather than focusing on pastachievements, we have concentrated on the driving force behind

many scientific advances: the thoughts and models of leaders inthe field. The overall aim of this issue is to provide an insight into the current thinking of expert researchers in a range of areasspanning the coverage of the three participating journals. Thearticles are purposely brief, and are written in a way that isintended to be accessible to cell biologists, geneticists and bio-chemists alike. We have encouraged the authors to avoid special-ized examples or jargon and instead to concentrate on the under-

lying principles, which can sometimes become lost inmore detailed reviews of specific subjects. We havealso encouraged them to express their own thoughts

and opinions, and to compose an essay that con-veys their personal view of the area in which

they work. Overall, we believewe have amassed an outstandingcollection of articles, and wehave felt privileged to have theopportunity to work with theauthors involved to achieve thefinal result.

This collection is by nomeans comprehensive. The top-ics were selected to provide a

broad variety of coverage, andboth the original choices and the

hand of fate determined the final mix.The subjects that have been covered range

from one of the most significant issues facing thelife-science community at present – the large number of

qualified PhDs and the relatively small number of perma-nent positions – to evolutionary considerations of how the

human species came to exist in the first place. We hope you willfind all the articles interesting and a valuable insight into currentthinking. As they cover general principles rather than specificdata, we hope that these essays will still be as relevant in years tocome as they are today. Trends journals have been at the fore-front of biological review publication for over 20 years, so itseems only fitting that we should aim to produce a millennialissue that will stand the test of time. Of course, time alone willtell whether it actually does.

Deborah Sweet, Mary Purton and Jane Alfred

Referencing the TiBS/TCB/TIG millennium issueTiBS, TCB and TIG are all publishing the articles in this joint millennium issue in the December issue of their 1999 volume. The articles aretherefore effectively being published in three different journal volumes simultaneously. However, most referencing formats and softwaredo not allow inclusion of more than one journal name or volume in an article reference. To overcome this problem, we suggest that, if youwant to cite any article in this issue, you choose the journal of the three that is most relevant for the article in question, and reference itas being from that journal. The page numbers are unique to the millennium issue (M1ÑM75) and will therefore be the same regardless ofthe journal you choose for the citation. If you have any questions about this citation procedure, please contact the Trends editorial officeusing the details given on page III.