By Erika Hayasaki — 2018
Studying twins has long offered insight into the interplay of nature and nurture. Epigenetics is the next frontier.
Read on www.theatlantic.com
CLEAR ALL
There are many factors at play when it comes to your weight, and genetics is certainly one of them.
For all the hype, fear and misinformation that surrounds the application of gene editing, there is an equally powerful technology that offers much the same in potential benefit. This technology, epigenetics, is a natural process that has gone largely unremarked by consumers.
Scientific research shows that experiences can affect whether and how genes are expressed. Nature vs. Nurture is no longer a debate—it's nearly always both!
If your DNA is the unique 'song of you', your epigenomes are the audio engineers that decide how that music will be played — which bits are loud, or edited out, whether the melody is dominant or maybe the drums are lost altogether.
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Epigenetics is the study of biological mechanisms that will switch genes on and off, to be put as a simplified definition. What does that mean? Well, if you are new to this whole thing, we first need a quick crash course in biochemistry and genetics before learning exactly what is epigenetics.
It’s not uncommon to read headlines about the “epigenetic revolution” and hear claims that epigenetics overthrows our understanding of evolution. So what exactly is epigenetics? How does it work? And why does it matter?
Most genetic studies completely ignore the science of epigenetics, which is how the environment actually turns certain genes on or off.
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Scientists are turning their focus to an emerging field: epigenetics, the study of how people’s experience and environment affect the function of their genes.
With new discoveries in epigenetics now making headlines, many of us are asking an important question: What are my children really inheriting? Can my baggage, the unfinished business I don't deal with, pass on to my kids? Without knowing it, could I be hurting them?
Dr. Joe Tafur and the Modern Spirit Epigenetics Project seek to understand the impact of psychedelics on intergenerational and cultural trauma.