After being ignored as useless genetic garbage, the vast 98% of the human genome that does not code for genes finally has a purpose. It turns out that these previously insignificant portions of DNA are the true genetic masterminds, or metabolic switches that regulate how and when genes function as well as how prolifically genes churn out their respective proteins. Without them, scientists say, genes would be like a jumbled mess of words that have no meaning. Scientists are already exploiting the newly discovered trove of biological information and pursuing new ways of controlling, and possibly even curing, diseases with the flick of a genetic switch.