The ramifications of a new type of gene

WHAT'S a gene? You might think biologists had worked that one out by now. But the question is more slippery than may at first appear. The conventional answer is something like, "a piece of DNA that encodes the structure of a particular protein". Proteins so created run the body. Genes, meanwhile, are passed on in sperm and eggs to carry the whole process to the next generation. None of this is false. But it is now clear that reality is more complex. Many genes, it transpires, do not encode prote...