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The momentum towards open-access publishing has continued to build in the months since Journal of Biology was launched.

In keeping with its promise to evolve in response to the needs of readers, Genome Biology is making a number of practical changes with the beginning of 2003.

In its one-and-a-half year history Genome Biology has witnessed the publication of the first plant genome, the first draft of the human genome (twice) and a more than doubling of the number of completed microbial sequences. There has also been a shift in 'functional genomics' away from simple microarray data and towards studies of the expression, structure and function of proteins, pathway and network analysis, and harnessing the power of comparative genomics. Debate has also raged over the past year on the importance and merits of providing immediate world-wide, barrier-free open access to the full text of research articles.

The upper airway is an organ not often investigated. Relatively little is known about its complex functions, and misunderstandings abound. The paper by Thomachot et al in this issue provides an opportunity to ponder on this important organ. Although the main result seems to be negative, the study provides some interesting physiological information on the upper airway and how it works.

Several aspects of Journal of Biology seem to have caught readers' attention. Some of the questions asked have arisen sufficiently often to be worth addressing here.