Tag: epigenetics
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Genes, microbes, us
Jon Turney has just published a fascinating new book about the microbiome and microbiomics entitled I, Superorganism: Learning to love your inner ecosystem. This blog post is a collection of thoughts provoked by this book; it’s not a book review. Coincidentally, Jon’s 1998 book Frankenstein’s Footsteps was my gateway into the social and cultural study…
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Science, politics and epigenetics
This post by Shea Robison is reposted here with the permission of author. Shea originally posted it on his blog ‘The nexus of epigenetics‘ under the title “Epigenetics Minority Report Part I: Epigenetics, blame, precrime and politics“ *** If you picked up the movie reference in the title to this post, you are likely (hopefully) asking…
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Tools for thinking about an increasingly complex world
A few weeks ago I had to write a seminar talk about epigenetics in the media. In the course of investigating the historical background to that emerging discipline, I looked at Conrad Hal Waddington’s work on embryology and development and his creation of the metaphor ‘epigenetic landscape’. But this is not what this blog post…
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Epigenetics: Switching the power (and responsibility) from genes to us?
We have always known that we are who we are because of our ancestors. We also know in ever more detail that we are who we are because of our genes. Since 1953 we know the structure of the genes that are passed down from generation to generation and since 2003 we know the structure…
Making Science Public 