ENCODE, Evolution, and the Percentage of the Genome That's Functional

ENCODE researchers got together in Potomac, MD, from June 29-July 1 for the ENCODE 2015: Research Applications and Users Meeting. For those who don't recall, ENCODE (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) is a years-long research project involving a consortium of hundreds of international scientists studying functionality in noncoding DNA in the human genome. Apparently some of those researchers are backing away from ENCODE's initial claims that 80 percent of the human genome is functional, and now c...