The Role of "Junk DNA" in Disease

Hi everyone,

Recently there was a huge amount of news coverage on the international Encode research project results, which showed that "junk DNA" has a large and previously unknown role in disease. Here's a link to the New York Times' coverage of the story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/science/far-from-junk-dna-dark-matter-proves-crucial-to-health.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

There are 574 comments on this NYT article alone; clearly, a huge amount of public interest was generated by this story. A brief scan reveals that many of the commenters focus on the apparent arrogance of scientists in labeling a segment of the genome 'junk DNA'. Further exploration led me to the link below, in which a biological anthropologist explains the origin of the term 'junk DNA', usefully clarifying that scientists are not quite so arrogant as the public may like to believe.

http://www.genomicron.evolverzone.com/2007/09/junk-dna-let-me-say-it-one-more-time/

-Abi