Ecstacy and Kin selection

Hello and welcome to Discovery, the national science radio show, where we take two cups of science, a cup of arts, a dollop of culture, mix it up and bake for half an hour.

First up, here's the news with Gina Satori.

Science reports this week that by mimicking evolution in the lab, scientists have produced the first RNA enzyme that can make copies of other RNA molecules.

The discovery provides an interesting piece of evidence for a primitive biological world that existed before DNA and protein to enter the sea.

The discovery nearly two decades ago of ripozymes, RNA molecules that can catalyse chemical reactions, led to the idea that modern life could have evolved from a primitive RNA gloat, During the job of both DNA and proteins, RNA would carry genetic information and replicate that information to pass on to future generations.

Such a bridge of discovery of additional ribozymes, including the heart of the protein synthesizing ribosome, had added to the credibility of the RNA world hypothesis.

But scientists have been unable to show that molecules of RNA are actually capable of copying other RNA sequences, a job performed in the modern biochemical world by protein enzymes called RNA polymerases.

That activity would be a critical component behind an RNA world.

Now, Wendy Johnston and colleagues at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have filled that gap.

They describe an enzyme consisting of a stretch of RNA produced by in vitro evolution that can make complementary copies of RNA molecules up to 14 nucleotides long, regardless of sequence, with impressive accuracy.

While in the real world, a 14 nuclear chance tree isn't very imposing, the team has demonstrated that RNA can do the job.

As the Bush administration ditters over what it might do to address global warming, 17 national academies of science decided to cut the chase in an editorial in this week's Journal of Science.

Affirming the International Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC's, conclusion that human activities are warming planets, The statement urges those with doubts, by implication the United States, to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which will impose binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions by industrialised countries.

Robert Maid, President of the Royal Society of the United Kingdom, which organised the statement, says it was partly provoked by Bush's recent rejection of the Kyoto Treaty, along with resistance to the Kyoto terms from countries such as Australia.

Part of the asset from the list of signers is the US National Academy of Sciences.

It was invited to sign, but the NAS board felt it could not use the document if it did not help draft on a few days' notice, according to its then-fallen secretary.

According to several sources, the statement's

explicit backing for the Kyoto Protocol was a problem.

In their statement, the 17 academies, including those in Australia, France, China and India, write, Doubts expressed recently about the need to mitigate the risk posed by global climate change are not justified.

Practication of the 1997 Teotihuacan Protocol represents a small but essential first step to host the build-up of greenhouse

gases.

White House officials, however, apparently question the IPCC's conclusions, and after, quote, informed discussions, NAS officials say they have decided to review them.

Over the next few weeks, an 11-member panel funded by the NAS will try to answer questions that IPCC's working group have already held.

The panel will decide for each angle where the climate change is occurring, where the human-produced greenhouse gases are contributing, and how much temperatures will rise.

It's just a pity they haven't noticed that 2,500 scientists on the IPCC spent three years doing just that.