The nature of the number

Perhaps this goes some way to explaining a fixation with the total number of genes in the human genome: that, in having a grip on the size of our genetic complement and complexity, we are better acquainted with our genomes or, some might even say, ourselves. On a more practical level, such knowledge grants a means of gauging the degree to which high-throughput expression analyses capture the ‘global’ picture, rather than a fraction of it.