Scientists have finished a jigsaw puzzle more than two decades in the making. Twenty years after the first map of the human genome was released, geneticists have filled in the gaps, creating the the first complete blueprint, CBS News reports.
Published Thursday in the journal Science, the international effort finished the final piece of the puzzle, about eight percent of the genome.
“Some of the genes that make us uniquely human were actually in this ‘dark matter of the genome’ and they were totally missed,” said Evan Eichler, a University of Washington researcher who participated in the current effort and the original Human Genome Project. “It took 20-plus years, but we finally got it done.”