Close-up on Western-Chinese competition in medical science research, a race that is becoming an important component in global leadership: that is the cover-story of this month’s issue of “Longitude” (chief editor, Pialuisa Bianco), available on newsstands as of 4 February. The articles inside deal with how to skirt the risk that the “euro cure” may threaten growth, Putin’s potholed road to re-election, the Iranian nuclear question, Africa’s “half-full or half-empty glass” and Hungary’s “new face” after institutional and constitutional changes