Obsolete, Generic, and General? Sounds Great

With genomics and genome-scanning taking off, Evolgen delves again into what the definition of a gene is, though he thinks the term is "obsolete" and "overly generic." Drawing on Carl Zimmer's recent article in the New York Times which includes gene definitions from Ewan Birney, Thomas Gingeras, and David Haussler, Evolgen says he agrees the most with Birney and Haussler who say that many transcripts don't wind up doing much. "The gene is far too general, and more specific terminology is warranted in most cases. And I haven't even touched on the importance of epigenetics," Evolgen writes.