![Intercropping maize and beans](http://bioscriptionblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Intercropping_maize_and_beans-500x375.jpg)
Once upon a time, scientists thought genetics and genomes were fairly straightforward. A gene encodes a protein and that protein carries out the actions that cause physical, metabolic effects and even phenotypic effects visible to others. It was a direct and simple system, a functional way for something formed through natural selection to be built. […]