I read Carl Zimmer's "Planet of Viruses" and Louann Brizendine's "The Female Brain". She is an MD and a specialist in neuropsychiatry. She is also the author of "The Maie Brain" and "The Upgrade." I have had a male brain all my life but I am interested in female brains. She wrote the books in the order I have listed and I have only read about a quarter of The Male Brain. Both the virus book and the female brain book focus on tiny and invisible things. I have never seen a virus and I have never seen a hormone.
Zimmer says that hormones were only discovered in the 1840's, well after bacteria were known to exist. The book "How We Got to Now" by Steven Johnson makes clear that the evolution of glass got a lift from Gutenberg's printing press that made books cheaper and within reach of more people. But more people discovered that, to read, they needed lens, spectacles. Better lenses and understanding of lens manufacture led to microscopes (and telescopes) and the discovery of the existence of tiny life which can have a big effect on us, our thinking and our lives. Viruses are 1000 times smaller than bacteria so it took a while to realize their existence.
Men are influenced by hormones but mainly in the matter of sexual pursuit and aggressiveness. Personally, I don't think it is at all true that "men only want one thing" - sex. But I admit it can seem that way at times. Dr. Brizendine makes clear that women have several hormone brain baths each month of their sexual maturity. I find her wording that hormones have a strong effect on people deciding "what is important" very helpful. When we watch "Call the Midwife", I often get a reminder of the female effort to carry and bear a new human being and the result of hormones steeping the new mother in chemicals that enchant her with her newborn.
I see that the Harvard Medical magazine features an article on viruses and emphasizes that some of them help humans very much.
https://hms.harvard.edu/magazine/viral-world/good-viruses-do
