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Scientists have discovered a lot of DNA that we don’t seem to have a use for, so they’ve called it "junk" DNA. But now they may be discovering that it’s not just junk, after all. They now think that at least 80% percent of it is active and needed.

The human genome is packed with at least four million gene switches that reside in bits of DNA that scientists now realize play critical roles in controlling how cells, organs and other tissues behave. In fact, complex diseases–from diabetes to depression–may be caused by tiny changes in hundreds of gene switches. It could explain why one person gets a disease, when another (who has been exposed to the same environmental contaminants) doesn’t. This even happens to identical twins!
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It’s the kind of transformation we DON’T want: Children who are exposed to violence experience wear and tear to their DNA that is similar the changes that come with aging. In a study of identical twins, researchers found that kids who had experienced violence had shorter genetic structures (called telomeres) than children who had more peaceful upbringings. It’s one more reason to give them a "time out" rather than a spanking!
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On TV cop shows, victims almost always identify the perpetrators correctly, but real life doesn’t work that way: DNA testing has revealed that witnesses often pick out the wrong person, while detectives, in the background, keep telling the person to "take your time." But new studies show that these witnesses should go with their snap judgments instead.
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It’s been discovered that DNA can travel on a meteorite, meaning that life on Earth could have been seeded from another planet–maybe even Mars. If that’s the case, we don’t need to look for life on Mars–we’re looking at it every time we see another human being!

On the MSNBC website, Charles Q. Choi quotes chemist Jim Cleaves as saying, "People have been finding nucleobases in meteorites for about 50 years now, and have been trying to figure out if they are of biological origin or not."
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