Junk DNA cover art

Junk DNA

A Journey Through the Dark Matter of the Genome

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Junk DNA

By: Nessa Carey
Narrated by: Nano Nagle
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About this listen

From the author of the acclaimed The Epigenetics Revolution 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 percent 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 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.

©2015 Nessa Carey (P)2020 W. F. Howes Ltd Biological Sciences Evolution & Genetics Genetics Physics Science Genetic Disease

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Critic reviews

"A cutting-edge, exhaustive guide to the rapidly changing, ever-more mysterious genome" (New Scientist)
All stars
Most relevant
narration i thought was too quick. but was clear more pauses needed would still recommend

interesting subject

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Another book that should never have been recorded as an audiobook.

There is way too much detail that would be fine when reading, when you can "chunk" information like CCGGTT etc in your head, but is excruciating and disruptive of the flow in audio, and makes it difficult to follow the narrative.

The narrator is using a very "BBC 1950s" english voice, which neither goes with the scientific material, nor is easy to listen to.

The material might be very interesting, but I'd have to buy the book to find out.

Doesn't work as an audio book

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