Yet-Another-Genome Syndrome

There's a certain kind of headline I have become sick of: "Scientists Have Sequenced the Genome of Species X!"

Fifteen years ago, things were different. In 1995, scientists published the first complete genome of a free-living organisms ever–that of a nasty germ called Haemophilus influenzae. Bear in mind, this was in the dark ages of the twentieth century, when a scientist might spend a decade trying to decipher the sequence of a single gene.

And then, with a giant thwomp, a team of scientists ...