Nessa Carey

Junk DNA

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From the author of the acclaimed The Epigenetics Revolution ('A book that would have had Darwin swooning' — Guardian) comes another thrilling exploration of the cutting edge of human science.
For decades after the structure of DNA was identified, scientists focused purely on genes, the regions of the genome that contain codes for the production of proteins. Other regions — 98% of the human genome — were dismissed as 'junk'. But in recent years researchers have discovered that variations in this 'junk' DNA underlie many previously intractable diseases, and they can now generate new approaches to tackling them.
Nessa Carey explores, for the first time for a general audience, the incredible story behind a controversy that has generated unusually vituperative public exchanges between scientists. She shows how junk DNA plays an important role in areas as diverse as genetic diseases, viral infections, sex determination in mammals, human biological complexity, disease treatments, even evolution itself — and reveals how we are only now truly unlocking its secrets, more than half a century after Crick and Watson won their Nobel prize for the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1962.
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436 printed pages
Copyright owner
Bookwire
Original publication
2015
Publication year
2015
Publisher
Icon Books

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Quotes

  • Yulia Yurchakhas quotedlast month
    It’s quite possible that the most wonderful and compelling aspect of biology is its glorious inconsistency
  • Yulia Yurchakhas quotedlast month
    the regions of the CENP-A protein that contain different amino acids from the standard histones are important for attracting the appropriate proteins
  • Yulia Yurchakhas quotedlast month
    there are few systems in biology that work well if allowed to run unchecked

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