|
|
 |
| | | | | The Ghost In Your Genes (2006) pt 1/4 | Read Description for a link to part 2
The scientists who believe your genes are shaped in part by your more...ancestors' life experiences.
Biology stands on the brink of a shift in the understanding of inheritance. The discovery of epigenetics – hidden influences upon the genes – could affect every aspect of our lives.
At the heart of this new field is a simple but contentious idea – that genes have a 'memory'. That the lives of your grandparents – the air they breathed, the food they ate, even the things they saw – can directly affect you, decades later, despite your never experiencing these things yourself. And that what you do in your lifetime could in turn affect your grandchildren.
Click Here for part 2
The conventional view is that DNA carries all our heritable information and that nothing an individual does in their lifetime will be biologically passed to their children. To many scientists, epigenetics amounts to a heresy, calling into question the accepted view of the DNA sequence – a cornerstone on which modern biology sits.
Epigenetics adds a whole new layer to genes beyond the DNA. It proposes a control system of 'switches' that turn genes on or off – and suggests that things people experience, like nutrition and stress, can control these switches and cause heritable effects in humans.
In a remote town in northern Sweden there is evidence for this radical idea. Lying in Överkalix's parish registries of births and deaths and its detailed harvest records is a secret that confounds traditional scientific thinking. Marcus Pembrey, a Professor of Clinical Genetics at the Institute of Child Health in London, in collaboration with Swedish researcher Lars Olov Bygren, has found evidence in these records of an environmental effect being passed down the generations. They have shown that a famine at critical times in the lives of the grandparents can affect the life expectancy of the grandchildren. This is the first evidence that an environmental effect can be inherited in humans.
In other independent groups around the world, the first hints that there is more to inheritance than just the genes are coming to light. The mechanism by which this extraordinary discovery can be explained is starting to be revealed.
Professor Wolf Reik, at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, has spent years studying this hidden ghost world. He has found that merely manipulating mice embryos is enough to set off 'switches' that turn genes on or off.
For mothers like Stephanie Mullins, who had her first child by in vitro fertilisation, this has profound implications. It means it is possible that the IVF procedure caused her son Ciaran to be born with Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome – a rare disorder linked to abnormal gene expression. It has been shown that babies conceived by IVF have a three- to four-fold increased chance of developing this condition.
And Reik's work has gone further, showing that these switches themselves can be inherited. This means that a 'memory' of an event could be passed through generations. A simple environmental effect could switch genes on or off – and this change could be inherited.
His research has demonstrated that genes and the environment are not mutually exclusive but are inextricably intertwined, one affecting the other.
The idea that inheritance is not just about which genes you inherit but whether these are switched on or off is a whole new frontier in biology. It raises questions with huge implications, and means the search will be on to find what sort of environmental effects can affect these switches.
After the tragic events of September 11th 2001, Rachel Yehuda, a psychologist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, studied the effects of stress on a group of women who were inside or near the World Trade Center and were pregnant at less
Views: 6,644
Favorited: 32
Comments: 5 Add Comment
Tags: ghosts genes dna genome code past lives life lives biology molecular remember memory sweden | | |
|
|
 |
| |
|
| Video Album: |
| | Through the Eyes of a slave
09:59
Added: Sep 2, 09
Views: 473 | The Meaning of life in 700 words - Story Waters 
06:50
Added: Aug 13, 09
Views: 775 | Say no to the vaccine
07:30
Added: Aug 13, 09
Views: 703 | Conciousness Drives the Universe
10:09
Added: May 13, 09
Views: 1,981 | THE LAW OF ATTRACTION
06:53
Added: Mar 1, 09
Channel: BIKINICONSPIRACY
Views: 2,331 | | A Personal Message For You pt 4/4
05:46
Added: Jan 18, 09
Views: 1,285 | A Personal Message For You pt 3/4
09:24
Added: Jan 18, 09
Views: 795 | A Personal Message For You pt 2/4
08:20
Added: Dec 28, 08
Views: 1,108 | A Personal Message For You pt 1/4
08:03
Added: Dec 27, 08
Views: 2,127 | Zeitgeist 2-Addendum Pt.1/4 (Very Informative and a must see by everyone)
35:46
Added: Oct 5, 08
Channel: genefire
Views: 4,552 | |
| |
|
|
|  | Posted Nov 11, 09 by CtGuy1955
nearest book, 5th sentence:
which, under the slightest touch , leaves a trace behind; nothing
I sure would like to see how this thing turns out, could you please let me know on my page? ctguy1955 in channel section (thanks)
Report CommentProcessing.... |
 | Posted Oct 3, 09 by jingxinyuan
Why is there a google advertisement for NY's Mayor? what's going on here?
Report CommentProcessing.... |
 | Posted Jul 15, 09 by ToxicTimes
Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence in your comment. AND POST these instructions with it......me first
Two other men wanted to follow,but Leofric threatened them with a spear and they dropped more...back and the smaller ship drew away to wait while the priest spoke to us. less
Report CommentProcessing.... |
| Posted Jul 23, 09 by ToxicTimes
TNX-Concen :-) ....I thought you might like it. Its a sociology experiment meant to allow people to gain a very limited insight as to what the interests are of another person. Most books take the first 75 pages outlining the premise, senario, and location more...of the story. A lot can be told by one line, if you just use some analitical reasoning. :-)
tnx again dude....Brothers Of The Maple Leaf ;-)....*tOX*.... less
Report CommentProcessing.... |
| |
|
|
|
