Epigenetics: The Memory of Genes

This video opens by explaining a new way of thinking about inheritance. This is the discovery of epigenetics which could soon affect every aspect of our lives. The main idea of epigenetics is that genes have a memory. Meaning that the lives of your grandparents can directly affect you, decades later, even if you’ve never experienced these things yourself. Things such as the air they breathed, food they ate, even the things they saw could cause these effects. According to the book before this discovery scientists believed that genes determined everything. Meaning that people became whatever their genes destined them to be such as a killer, hero, or an ordinary person.
In the book and in class we discussed that people used to mistakenly believe that genes determined biology. However, the book defined that the prefix epi- means “with,” “around,” “before,” or “near.” This means that the word epigenetics refers to the environmental factors that

The end of the video supports this idea by following Rachel Yehuda, a psychologist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. After the twin towers fell on September 11th 2001 she studied the effects of stress on a group of women who were inside or near the buildings and were pregnant at the time. Collaborating with Jonathan Seckl, an Edinburgh doctor, her results suggest that stress effects can be passed down generations. The video also states that some research at the Washington State University can point to toxic effects. Such as exposure to some pesticides causing biological changes in rats that can persist through at least four generations. The video ends with a wrap up talking about how this will change the way causes of diseases are viewed, as well as the importance of your lifestyle. What people do no longer just affects themselves, but can also affect the health of their children and