Junk DNA

Engaging, informative, and humorous, Nessa Carey's Junk DNA will be of interest to many readers. -- Sharon Y. R. Dent, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Carey makes two points very clearly: that our understanding is tentative and evolving, and that chromosomal functioning is far more intricate than anyone ever hypothesized. Publisher's Weekly Junk DNA provides a cutting-edge, exhaustive guide to the rapidly changing, ever-more mysterious genome. -- Linda Geddes New Scientist [Junk DNA], which is frequently humorous and well documented, does a fine job of explaining a complex subject for lay readers who are willing to put in some effort. Library Journal Carey's enthusiasm for her subject is infectious... An excellent introduction to a subject that we are certain to be hearing a lot more about in the near future. -- Mark Diston The Register Junk DNA serves as a nice primer. The Scientist The first popular overview of this field... [Carey] has an excellent grasp of the history of junk DNA and its implications for both basic and applied science. She has a gift for analogies and converts complex biochemistry into imagery that brings it to a level nonspecialists can grasp. -- Elof Axel Carlson The Quarterly Review of Biology

Nessa Carey is a visiting professor at Imperial College, London. She earned her Ph.D. in virology from the University of Edinburgh. Having worked in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries for more than a decade, she maintains strong relationships with leading researchers in Europe and across the United States, at such institutions as the Harvard Medical School, the University of Pennsylvania, the Wistar Institute, the MD Anderson Cancer Center, and the University of Southern California. Carey is also the author of The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology Is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease, and Inheritance.

Acknowledgments Notes on Nomenclature An Introduction to Genomic Dark Matter 1. Why Dark Matter Matters 2. When Dark Matter Turns Very Dark Indeed 3. Where Did All the Genes Go? 4. Outstaying an Invitation 5. Everything Shrinks When We Get Old 6. Two Is the Perfect Number 7. Painting with Junk 8. Playing the Long Game 9. Adding Colour to the Dark Matter 10. Why Parents Love Junk 11. Junk with a Mission 12. Switching It On, Turning It Up 13. No Man's Land 14. Project ENCODE-Big Science Comes to Junk DNA 15. Headless Queens, Strange Cats, and Portly Mice 16. Lost in Untranslation 17. Why LEGO Is Better Than Airfix 18. Mini Can Be Mighty 19. The Drugs Do Work (Sometimes) 20. Some Light in the Darkness Notes Appendix: Human Diseases in Which Junk DNA Has Been Implicated Index