Hi. May I explain science to you?

On Epigenetics

 

There’s a notion that we’re a tabula rasa when we’re born, meaning that our experiences are yet to shape us. And while that might be true in the neurological sense, in the molecular sense it looks a bit different: we’re born a book. And that book, our DNA, is shaped by billions of years of history. Some by our very distant relatives that belong to another animal species, and some that happened recently: namely the experience of our parents and grandparents.

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And while the physical information in our DNA molecule takes time or force to change, the molecule still bears the consequences of experiences that, for example, our ancestors or we have acquired during the lifetime. Imagine it as little flags: experience changes the position of flags that stick to DNA. The combination of flags bears its own message: read this DNA region, or simply don’t. And reading or not reading certain elements of DNA means many things, and they contribute to either health or disease.