Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Experiences can affect our genes

In this article found in the New York Times discusses how our life experiences can affect our genes. The article talks about epigenetics, the study of how people's experiences and their environment can affect they genetics. Epigenetic markers develop as one adapts to their environment,usually from birth, but not always.  One example they used was in a study scientists did on rats where the mothers were affectionate to their offspring. This caused the offspring's ability to deal with stress dampen. They in turn passed this on to their own offspring.  There are over 100 studies being done on different types of conditions to see how extensive epigenetics really is.

I found this article interesting because it is basically what we were talking about during class, how genes and environment affect the outcome. It seems hard to believe that experiences can alter us genetically but scientist are proving it with so many studies.

1 comment:

  1. This is a pretty interesting article, and it's kind of crazy to think that experiences can alter your genetics. Environments, of course, but now that they have proof through epigenetics that it's not just environments, I think that's fairly amazing. Awesome article!

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