Acknowledgments ix
Notes on Nomenclature xi
An Introduction to Genomic Dark Matter 1
1. Why Dark Matter Matters 7
2. When Dark Matter Turns Very Dark Indeed 13
3. Where Did All the Genes Go? 25
4. Outstaying an Invitation 37
5. Everything Shrinks When We Get Old 47
6. Two Is the Perfect Number 63
7. Painting with Junk 79
8. Playing the Long Game 97
9. Adding Colour to the Dark Matter 113
10. Why Parents Love Junk 125
11. Junk with a Mission 145
12. Switching It On, Turning It Up 157
13. No Man's Land 175
14. Project ENCODE - Big Science Comes to Junk DNA 185
15. Headless Queens, Strange Cats and Portly Mice 201
16. Lost in Untranslation 219
17. Why LEGO is Better Than Airfix 237
18. Mini Can Be Mighty 255
19. The Drugs Do Work (Sometimes) 271
20. Some Light in the Darkness 283
Notes 289
Appendix: Human Diseases in Which Junk DNA Has Been Implicated 329
Index 333