“- ome, sweet “-ome,” in science usage

In “‘Ome,’ the Sound of the Scientific Universe Expanding” (New York Times, May 3, 2012), James Gorman discusses something we’ve all noticed, the growth in “-omes,”which started, of course, with the “genome”:

An epidemic of neologia ensued. Thus were born the proteome and the secretome and the glycome, and numerous other omes that are pretty much impossible to keep track of. Interactome. Regulome. Connectome. Epigenome. The list goes on. In fact, it goes on for about 18 pages if you go to the Omics.org site and print out its list of omes and omics.

Not good news if you need a simple explanation for everything.