For a molecular biologist, is there a genuine expectation to know as many of the 19,000 as possible? I’d imagine it is a lot more specialized so any one researcher is expected to know a few tens, maybe a hundred genes?
Still, it does feel like a mountain of work to learn about them “manually” versus through narratives with emotions and vividly designed characters. Amazing effort, it’s been on my mind that with the AI explosion we’ll soon see a massive improvement to teaching because we can 1) customize to every student 2) make any topic more fun through methods similar to yours. I hope it happens sooner rather than later.
A hundred+ genes is what you’d learn during your undergrad classes. This is not counting gene category names (we’re expected to know what Hox genes are, but not what each one does individually), and genes not relevant to humans (prokaryotes, viruses...).
Then each time you change a lab, you’re expected to learn: * Lab’s genes of interest (this time, if you’re in a Hox lab, what each individual Hox does, there’s 39 of them) * Markers for the cell types and organelles of interest * Interactions of the lab favorite genes with rare cell signalling genes not covered in the undergrad * Genes other labs work on, during journal club or conference talks
So I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s closer to a thousand if you never forget anything (I do).
That was incredible, thank you.
For a molecular biologist, is there a genuine expectation to know as many of the 19,000 as possible? I’d imagine it is a lot more specialized so any one researcher is expected to know a few tens, maybe a hundred genes?
Still, it does feel like a mountain of work to learn about them “manually” versus through narratives with emotions and vividly designed characters. Amazing effort, it’s been on my mind that with the AI explosion we’ll soon see a massive improvement to teaching because we can 1) customize to every student 2) make any topic more fun through methods similar to yours. I hope it happens sooner rather than later.
Again: thank you!
A hundred+ genes is what you’d learn during your undergrad classes. This is not counting gene category names (we’re expected to know what Hox genes are, but not what each one does individually), and genes not relevant to humans (prokaryotes, viruses...).
Then each time you change a lab, you’re expected to learn:
* Lab’s genes of interest (this time, if you’re in a Hox lab, what each individual Hox does, there’s 39 of them)
* Markers for the cell types and organelles of interest
* Interactions of the lab favorite genes with rare cell signalling genes not covered in the undergrad
* Genes other labs work on, during journal club or conference talks
So I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s closer to a thousand if you never forget anything (I do).