The epigenome is something like a link between your DNA and your environment. This article from Wired describes it as a part of your genetic makeup that’s handed down from your forebears, and that changes according to your environment. The epigenome consists of biochemical reactions that affect whether or not a particular gene is expressed. The article focuses on ways that we will be able to predict and treat certain diseases, particularly cancer, as our understanding of epigenetics grows. I remember reading in one of Matt Ridley’s books that nature and nurture are like the length and width of a rectangle: just as you need both the length and the width to calculate the area, you need both nature and nurture to explain a creature’s behavior. I wonder if the epigenome is part of what connects the two. At any rate, it’s a fascinatingly complex development in our knowledge of living things and their DNA.
http://wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,68468,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_4
and a few more bits on epigenetics on http://www.epigenome.eu
just a general comment, after finding Thinking Meat for the first time:
i’ve used the meat reference for so long, but haven’t encountered it much out there. our bodies are ‘meat costumes,’ and human conversation is ‘chatting with the roasts’…and now i find a whole site on the concept.
whoopee. (to be brief.)
i’m in heaven and will waste inexcusable amounts of time here, now.
thanks.