How many genes does it take to make a person?

[...] the real challenge for viruses is discovering them in the first place.

Knockout genes are fairly easy to study with lab rats, using modern genetic engineering techniques to inactivate both copies of particular genes of our choice, or even remove them altogether, and see what happens.

[...] human studies require populations of people living in communities with 21st century medical technologies and known pedigrees suited to the genetic and statistical analyses required.

[...] one surprising discovery was that the PRDM9 gene – which plays a crucial role in the fertility of mice – can also be knocked out in people with no ill effects.

The recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence are based on neural networks; these are computer models of the brain in which simple elements – corresponding to neurons – establish their own connections through interacting with the world.

The results have been spectacular in applied areas such as handwriting recognition and medical diagnosis, and Google has invited the public to play games with and observe the dreams of its AIs.

[...] it shouldn’t come as a great surprise that human gene numbers may be of the same size as those of single-celled microbes like viruses and bacteria.

[...] many biofilms have systems of electrical communication between cells, like brain tissue, making them a model for studying brain disorders such as migraine and epilepsy.

Biofilms can also be thought of as “cities of microbes,” and the integration of sociomicrobiology and medical research is making rapid progress in many areas, such as the treatment of cystic fibrosis.

The social lives of microbes in these cities – complete with cooperation, conflict, truth, lies and even suicide – is fast becoming the major study area in evolutionary biology in the 21st century.