In 1999, a book appeared in Paris with the rather alarming title De la prochaine guerre avec l'Allemagne (‘On the future war with Germany’). It had not been written by some sensationalist science-fiction writer, but by none other than Philippe Delmas, a former aid to Roland Dumas, who was twice minister of Foreign Affairs under the Mitterrand administration.

This study discusses the various short-, medium- and long-term cycle theories and focuses on the long-term Kondratiev cycle and its Schumpeterian interpretation. It gives a summary on the economic fluctuation in the 20th century and its impact on structural transformation and regional rearrangements. The problem of ‘peripheral structural crisis’ – the destruction without creation in the relatively backward regions of Europe – is introduced.

The purpose of this study was to examine and explain how the landscape of personal relationships is changing through new means of technologies such as the Internet. Nowadays, increasing numbers of individuals are getting to know each other, and falling in love, thanks to this form of communication. In order to understand and analyse this phenomenon from a sociological perspective, I have carried out exploratory research on the situation in Italy. We conducted a series of interviews and constructed the histories of the lives of Italians who, by navigating, fell in love with their correspondents and got involved in affairs with, more or less, happy endings. We were thus able to discover that, behind this virtual world, there are real feelings, emotions, hopes and dreams. Often, on the computer, anonymity and the barrier of the screen allow people to be more spontaneous, sincere, true and genuine with each other than they might be in real life. True love affairs according to Francesco Alberoni's definition are born. However, meeting in person, which must happen sooner or later, can result in losing what might have been gained up to that point. As in every challenge, many end up as losers and few as winners.

Man inhabits two realms, that of reality and that of the imagination. The progress of science is a complex negotiation between these two realms, a dialectic in which fact-oriented observations and probability-oriented imagination are inseparably intertwined. But there are many signs that, recently, the natural equilibrium between these two has become destabilized and artifice and imagination have gained the upper hand to a distinctly unhealthy extent. In both science and scholarship we seem to be involved in an increasing and deeply problematic shift from pre-occupation with virtual rather than actual reality.

This paper considers the forms of life of old age and the opportunities presented by these forms of life (i.e. optimal ageing) as well as corresponding research programmes into gerontology. Ageing and old age are usually viewed more as a biological, medical and socio-economic problem and less as a form of life that can be optimized and cultivated. Viewed from this perspective, the gerontological research programme is the programme of interventionist science. This, of course, includes natural scientific research, which today is organized along very specialized disciplinary lines. The point to grasp is that the gerontological research programme is an integrative programme, and thus something pursued in an interdisciplinary, even transdisciplinary, manner. This possibility is supported by the fact that there is apparently no uniform genetic programme that could explain the ageing process and prevent differential ageing. In the introductory part of the paper, a differentiated culture of ageing is discussed, followed by a descriptive part, in which various research programmes are presented. The conclusion takes up some ideas on the interdisciplinarity or transdisciplinarity of a future science of ageing.

Introduction

The rapid development of molecular biology and genetics has created exciting new possibilities, but these are not without concerns. Some are ethical, relating to human life and behaviour, and some are ecological, potentially affecting the natural environment. The articles in this Focus are concerned with some of these matters.

Stem cells are capable of regenerating tissue cells. They have an important potential use in a wide range of therapies, especially as an alternative to organ transplantation, with the advantage that they can be derived from the patient and thus avoid rejection. Embryonic stem cells are potentially capable of forming all kinds of cells. Their use is controversial however, because they are derived from early embryos and because, if they were to match the patient, they would have to be obtained using the same techniques that could, in theory, be used to produce cloned individuals. This article discusses the uses and problems of stem cell research and therapy.

Somatic gene therapy remains a promising therapeutic approach for both inherited and acquired disorders. Among the tissues amenable to gene therapy, the skin, and particularly the epidermal cells, present several features advantageous for genetic manipulation and monitoring of therapeutic effects. Candidate diseases for cutaneous gene therapy not only involve skin defects but also systemic abnormalities. The robust basic and pre-clinical data gathered during the last few years have allowed the imminent launching of keratinocyte-based gene therapy with applications to patients.

The development, refinement and increasingly widespread use of DNA microarrays have been important responses to the explosion of sequence information produced by genome science. The high sample densities possible with DNA microarrays, coupled with the complete or nearly complete genome sequences available for humans and model organisms, provide a powerful analytical method to measure both qualitative and quantitative variations in RNA and DNA. Principal among the applications of microarrays is the large-scale analysis of RNA expression, often referred to as expression profiling. The power of this application lies in its ability to determine the expression patterns of tens of thousands of genes in a single experiment. Additionally, the ability to detect DNA polymorphisms makes microarrays useful in studies designed to correlate DNA sequence variations with variations in phenotype. The unprecedented scale on which microarrays allow both experimentation and generation of results should make possible a more complete and comprehensive understanding of cells and cellular processes.

Plant molecular breeding represents a new technology that adds to, rather than substitutes for, traditional breeding practice, and shares with it the same long-standing objectives: higher yield, better products, better-adapted plants. Additionally, it allows the consideration of completely new applications: pharmaceuticals, industrial products and bioremediation processes. Safety issues and the socio-economic prospects of this new technology are discussed.