FIGURE 1. Hidden message.

Ishihara's test for red–green colour deficiencies uses several coloured plates, similar to this one, in which a number is disguised in a different colour within the dot pattern. Similarly, we are so fascinated by genes (green dots) that we have become blinded to non-gene components (magenta dots) of the genome. However, in studying 1% of the genome, the researchers of the ENCODE consortium² found that non-gene sequences have essential regulatory functions, and thus cannot be ignored.