A new type of biological engineering should speed up innovation The stuff of life comes wrapped in tiny bags called cells. Inside are DNA molecules that carry the instructions for how to run the cell, to make it grow, and to cause it, ultimately, to divide into two cells, if that is to be its fate. Messages made of a slightly different molecule, RNA, carry these instructions to molecular machine..
Their hostility is making the front-runner more hawkish Any excuse for a party. On April 25th North Korea celebrated the 85th anniversary of the founding of its glorious army. Ten days before its young despot, Kim Jong Un, had marked the 105th birthday of his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, the country's founder, with a vast military parade. Mr Kim loves fireworks, too. He set off a ballistic missile ..
Donald Trump grapples with his trickiest task North Korea can be as confusing as it is alarming. It is a hereditary Marxist monarchy. It has the world's youngest supreme leader and also its oldest. The reigning tyrant, Kim Jong Un, is in his 30s; and his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, is the "eternal president" despite having died in 1994. To celebrate grandpa Kim's birthday on April 15th, his grands..
High employment is combined with undemanding workers TRIMLY DRESSED deliverymen, polite and punctual, are ubiquitous in Japan. So it was shocking to see one of them kicking his parcels and hurling his trolley outside a block of Tokyo flats after apparently finding no one at home. Captured on a camera phone last December, this incident of “parcel rage” went viral, forcing Sagawa Express, one of J..
Xi Jinping talks of a "China solution", without specifying what that means As Donald Trump prepares to welcome Xi Jinping next week for the two men's first face-to-face encounter, both countries are reassessing their place in the world. They are looking in opposite directions: America away from shouldering global responsibilities, China towards it. And they are reappraising their positions in ve..
It leaves Britain little time to get through a bulging, contentious agenda Back in October Theresa may promised to invoke Article 50, the legal procedure for leaving the European Union, by the end of March 2017. On March 29th the prime minister duly sent a six-page letter to Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council of heads of EU governments. Article 50 sets in motion a negotiating pro..
And that is bad for America - and the world Donald Trump won the White House on the promise that government is easy. Unlike his Democratic opponent, whose career had been devoted to politics, Mr Trump stood as a businessman who could Get Tings Done. Enough voters decided that boasting, mocking, lying and grabbing women were secondary. Some Trump fans even saw them as the credentials of an authen..
The deployment of an American anti-missile system in South Korea does not threaten China's nuclear weapons The Chinese authorities are so angry with South Korea that they have cheered on boycotts of South Korean goods and culture, persecuted South Korean firms operating in China and discouraged Chinese tourists from visiting South Korea. China is South Korea's biggest market for exports (it spen..
They think Amazon is going to grow faster, longer and bigger than almost any firm in history Every chief executive hopes to lead his company to success. Jeff Bezos, Amazon's boss, wants something more epic. A prominent wall in the company's headquarters in Seattle is covered with narratives from historic explorations: excerpts from "The Odyssey"; notes from the journey of Lewis and Clark as they..
Amazon has the potential to meet the expectations of investors. But success will bring a big problem. Amazon is an extraordinary company. The former bookseller accounts for more than half of every new dollar spent online in America. It is the world's leading provider of cloud computing. This year Amazon will probably spend twice as much on television as HBO, a cable channel. Its own-brand physic..
Now for a snap election She blocked investigators from entering the Blue House, the presidential residence where she had holed up after the National Assembly asked the constitutional court to remove her from office in December. She refused to be questioned, and attended none of the 20 hearings at which the court heard evidence against her. Three weeks ago she demanded the ejection of one of the ..
At the worst possible moment, Leviathan is under strain "Everywhere things are lean. And not in a strategic, manged way." It is march 8th. In Westminster Philip Hammond is giving the budget speech. And in the West Midlands Caroline Leighton is pondering the British state. As chief executive of the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) in Coventry, she knows her stuff. The CAB network is where people who ..
The strangeness of the quantum realm opens up exciting new technological possibilities A bathing cap that can watch individual neurons, allowing others to monitor the wearer's mind. A sensor that can spot hidden nuclear submarines. A computer that can discover new drugs, revolutionize securities trading and design new materials. A global network of communication links whose security is underwrit..
Shared history, lots of trade and an odd dispute about stolen statues For centuries the wako, dastardly Japanese pirates, skulked in the countless coves of Tsushima island, roughly halfway between the Japanese archipelago and the Korean peninsula, frequently raiding the coast of Korea. In 1592 General Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his 200,000 men launched the seven-year Imjin invasion from the island, ..
Every trade relationship needs an umpire, like it or not The European Court of Justice (ECJ), a stately place populated by robed judges, eager clerks and artworks depicting clunky legal metaphors, seems an unlikely place for a coup. But it is here, "tucked away in the fairyland Duchy of Luxembourg", wrote Eric Stein, an American academic, that the court "fashioned a constitutional framework for ..