Since a US Government-mandated (and taxpayer paid) 4-year study (ENCODE, led by Dr. Collins) established the scientific fact that (at the least a significant part of) formerly "written off" so-called "non-coding DNA" is massively involved in genome function, US government-supported professionals who after the release of ENCODE (reversal of the Establishment in 2007) neglect to to follow Dr. Collins' mandate that "the scientific community will have to re-think long-held beliefs" are actually liable for a hefty Class Action Lawsuit for Negligence when they disregard the established reversal of protocol and e.g. continue to "write off" investigation of 98.7% of the DNA in cases of grave genomic syndromes.
I really try to be fair with people like this, but woah. Can researchers be charged with negligence for what they don't study? (Assuming, that is, that there actually was a total dismissal of non-coding DNA, which there wasn't).
