--- title: Why Saudi Arabia Is Heating Up Its Cold War With Iran description: Why Saudi Arabia heated up its cold war with Iran, DNA editing to fight diseases and more. canonical: https://time.com/4167614/saudi-arabia-iran-cold-war/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-05T17:01:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:40.568Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why Saudi Arabia Is Heating Up Its Cold War With Iran og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4167614/saudi-arabia-iran-cold-war/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Saudi Arabia Is Heating Up Its Cold War With Iran twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Why Saudi Arabia Is Heating Up Its Cold War With Iran by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jan 5, 2016 5:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Jan 5, 2016 5:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**Why did Saudi Arabia heat up its cold war with Iran?**](http://carnegieendowment.org/2016/01/04/why-saudi-arabia-escalated-middle-east-s-sectarian-conflict/ioiv) By Marc Lynch at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace **2\.** [**Scientists edited the DNA of mice to treat muscular dystrophy. What’s next?**](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/01/science/gene-therapy-muscular-dystrophy.html) By Nicholas Wade in the New York Times **3\.** [**Your flexible work schedule could be stressing you out.**](http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/jan/02/work-life-balance-flexible-working-can-make-you-ill-experts-say) By Juliette Jowit in the Guardian **4\.** [**How do children learn gender stereotypes?**](http://theconversation.com/why-stories-matter-for-childrens-learning-52135) By Peggy Albers in the Conversation **5\.** [**You probably shower too often.**](http://www.ozy.com/immodest-proposal/why-you-shower-too-much/66839) By Tracy Moran in Ozy  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4167614/saudi-arabia-iran-cold-war/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4167614/saudi-arabia-iran-cold-war/"},"headline":"Why Saudi Arabia Is Heating Up Its Cold War With Iran","datePublished":"2016-01-05T17:01:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:40.568Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4167614/saudi-arabia-iran-cold-war/","keywords":["Innovation","Iran","gender","DNA","Stress","Saudi Arabia"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4167614/saudi-arabia-iran-cold-war/","name":"Why Saudi Arabia Is Heating Up Its Cold War With Iran"}}]}] ```