ScienceGymnasium: Scientists have found that memories may be passed down through generations in our DNA
Note that on careful reading, the study does not show that "memories" are passed down. What it shows is that experiences in life can result in heritable change in the genome.
But there is a world of difference between a traumatic association with the smell of cherry blossoms being passed on as a fear reaction to that smell, and the completely goofy idea of "racial memory," as in the Science Fiction idea of alien invaders with bat-wings, horns, and barbed tails being responsible for the iconic images of demons.
To paraphrase The Animals:
I'm just an scientist whose research is good,
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood.
At some point it's going to be hard to say Lamarck was wrong.
ReplyDeleteNo, the kinds of changes they are talking about are single generation, trivial changes. It's still not possible for use and disuse to confer long term heritable change on progeny.
ReplyDeleteAre you sure? It says "to later generations," not to "the next generation."
ReplyDeleteEpigenetic change is a kind of imprinting of nucleotides which changes how they are transcribed, but it does not change the base pair sequence. It is a reversible way for the genome to adjust to environmental changes for a generation, but not to change the long term inheritance of genes.
ReplyDeleteOkay, but is it possible that "the way they are transcribed" is also heritable? The oracle of all wisdom seems to leave open the possibility.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics
Yes, but it is a much more easily reversible change than a change in the base pair sequence.
ReplyDeleteThe important point is that a fear reaction based on a scent is pretty far removed from passing down memories. It's an interesting finding, but not a big deal. Somebody is over selling the story.
I can't imagine anybody would do such a thing! :-)
ReplyDelete