So what is this 'Did a virus make you smart?' about then? I didn't see it in the text.

The SF stories utilize the premise of virus being created or engineered to make people smarter. The author of the article I guess researched and found that some of the SF novel was based on possible real research. I liken this SF author to Crichton, who puts a lot of real science into a book, with a lot of what if....type thinking.