The scientific community reacted quite negatively to an article written by Siddhartha Mukherjee in The New Yorker where he was subsequently accused of oversimplifying epigenetics. This topic has generated a great deal of attention by scientists and the public.
But, there is a lot of confusion and misinformation about this relatively new topic, which is exemplified by the following question: “How can you gain any sort of valuable information or pluck the underlying epigenetic thread of truth from this swirling accumulation of misleading refuse?”
It is that question that led to this article.
Epigenetics literally means “in addition to” genetics. Our genetic information, or DNA, which is found within the nucleus of our cells, has molecular tags that allow for genes to turn on or off. But that is in addition to the complex mechanisms that allow for genes to make proteins or to keep them from being made......Read more
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