Wall Street Journal science reporter Robert Lee Hotz posted a funny-cause-it’s-true essay about the curious rise in the suffix “-ome” or “-omics,” as in foldome, physiome, biome, and sociomics, pharmacogenomics, datanomics, and on and on. In fact, there’s even a scientific journal named Omics, and you can track other bio-related omes over at Omics.org. “It sounds futuristic. It sounds computational,” said Harvard medical geneticist Robert C. Greenm who studies the incidentalome (seriously!). “When you use the term “omics,” it signals you are a new paradigm guy.” Futuristic, eh? That’s probably why Institute for the Future’s exec director Marina Gorbis sent the article out to the whole staff this morning. OK, Marina, we get the hint. Although futuromics does sound cooler than futurism or futurology.
“Here’s an Omical Tale: Scientists Discover Spreading Suffix“