Part 1 of 5 - The Ghost in your Genes - BBC Horizon

Biology stands on the brink of a shift in the understanding of inheritance. The discovery of epigenetics hidden influences upon the genes could affect every aspect of our lives.
At the heart of this new field is a simple but contentious idea that genes have a 'memory'. That the lives of your grandparents the air they breathed, the food they ate, even the things they saw can directly affect you, decades later, despite your never experiencing these things yourself. And that what you do in your lifetime could in turn affect your grandchildren.
The conventional view is that DNA carries all our heritable information and that nothing an individual does in their lifetime will be biologically passed to their children. To many scientists, epigenetics amounts to a heresy, calling into question the accepted view of the DNA sequence a cornerstone on which modern biology sits.
Epigenetics adds a whole new layer to genes beyond the DNA. It proposes a control system of 'switches' that turn genes on or off and suggests that things people experience, like nutrition and stress, can control these switches and cause heritable effects in humans.
In a remote town in northern Sweden there is evidence for this radical idea. Lying in Överkalix's parish registries of births and deaths and its detailed harvest records is a secret that confounds traditional scientific thinking. Marcus Pembrey, a Professor of Clinical Genetics at the Institute of Child Health in London, in collaboration with Swedish researcher Lars Olov Bygren, has found evidence in these records of an environmental effect being passed down the generations. They have shown that a famine at critical times in the lives of the grandparents can affect the life expectancy of the grandchildren. This is the first evidence that an environmental effect can be inherited in humans.
In other independent groups around the world, the first hints that there is more to inheritance than just the genes are coming to light. The mechanism by which this extraordinary discovery can be explained is starting to be revealed.
Professor Wolf Reik, at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, has spent years studying this hidden ghost world. He has found that merely manipulating mice embryos is enough to set off 'switches' that turn genes on or off.
For mothers like Stephanie Mullins, who had her first child by in vitro fertilisation, this has profound implications. It means it is possible that the IVF procedure caused her son Ciaran to be born with Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome a rare disorder linked to abnormal gene expression. It has been shown that babies conceived by IVF have a three- to four-fold increased chance of developing this condition.
And Reik's work has gone further, showing that these switches themselves can be inherited. This means that a 'memory' of an event could be passed through generations. A simple environmental effect could switch genes on or off and this change could be inherited.
His research has demonstrated that genes and the environment are not mutually exclusive but are inextricably intertwined, one affecting the other.
The idea that inheritance is not just about which genes you inherit but whether these are switched on or off is a whole new frontier in biology. It raises questions with huge implications, and means the search will be on to find what sort of environmental effects can affect these switches.
After the tragic events of September 11th 2001, Rachel Yehuda, a psychologist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, studied the effects of stress on a group of women who were inside or near the World Trade Center and were pregnant at the time. Produced in conjunction with Jonathan Seckl, an Edinburgh doctor, her results suggest that stress effects can pass down generations. Meanwhile research at Washington State University points to toxic effects like exposure to fungicides or pesticides causing biological changes in rats that persist for at least four generations.
This work is at the forefront of a paradigm shift in scientific thinking. It will change the way the causes of disease are viewed, as well as the importance of lifestyles and family relationships. What people do no longer just affects themselves, but can determine the health of their children and grandchildren in decades to come. "We are," as Marcus Pembrey says, "all guardians of our genome."

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• BBC
• Horizon
• Ghost
• Genes
• Inheritance
• Biology
• Science
• Relation
• epigenetics
• histones
• genome
• nutrition
• stress

[geoPhaze]

@GingaSoulja Yes this is science, as in it is based on evidence, and experiment backing up observations. What you are talking about is faith, same as religion and mysticism. There will be some of that which is right and true, due to it being refined by a mechanism similar to science.

[remork138]

@CameronsContrick

if you think you need to be a pervert to film semi(!) naked children in this context, that says a lot more about you than about the makers.

this is about how a child inherits traits from mom, dad and grandparents. as innocently as that.

it's only in YOUR mind the people behind the camera become perverts - there's not a single shot in here that has anything remotely sexual to it.

unless you feel ANY sign of skin is sexual.

but then there's pro's to help you with that.

[staranjela]

really informative and interesting

[smuggecko]

love the video really good

[Titusaki]

@CameronsContrick Bwhahahah there is nothing wrong with this video at all! There is not semi- naked children at the beginning! OMGosh is a fetus in a womb, there is nothing wrong with that, its life. People back in the day used to carve out naked statues and noone thought there was anything wrong with it, why do people think the way you do it todays world?

[Titusaki]

@LibertyTwilite Well, yeah T.V, its not good and Im glad that I dont' care to watch it anymore. In my opinion, I think T.V. is kinda boring with all the commertials and such, though I do watch shows on netflix, would that count as being like T.V? And would Youtube be like T.V? Probably not though if only T.V is broadcasted in a specific frequency.

[Titusaki]

@GwynnEarl How can you check comments that have been marked or flagged when you check them they say that the comment has been flagged. The comment is no longer able to be seen so there is no use in checking it. Why skip to page 3 or 4 when I can look at all the pages if I wanted to? Well if a person thinks any videos are rediculous then they don't have to watch those videos. Getting sucked into youtube? Why are you on youtube and havn't got sucked into it yet? lol

[Titusaki]

Those cameras I think are called poloroid cameras, and my mom used to have one. Those cameras are so cool and awesome but its sad that they arn't being made anymore. I would actually rather have those types of cameras that develop film right away instead of a digital camera.

[LibertyTwilite]

This is a brainwashing show that originally aired on broadcast (hypnosis) TV. It's universally known that the MSM presents half-truths and artifically fabricated lies to the viewers. Did you know that "TV" is broadcast in a specific frequency that affects the human brain? This is by design. After just a few minutes of watching tv, the viewer enters a suggestive or hypnotic trance like state. Please, TURN THE HYPNOTIZER OFF!

[LibertyTwilite]

I dont believe one word of this. BBC? YA RIGHT. It's a smokescreen to gain public acceptance of the idea that it's somehow ok and not an abomination. Just as the tampering of the plant genome has been a disaster (GMO's), the same thing will occur.

[VicariousReality7]

WHAT THE FU

I right about had a heart attack when they mentioned Överkalix, i live in Kalix

[GwynnEarl]

Browse briefly at idiotic debate.

Skip to page 3 or 4..

Check comments that have been marked or flagged..

Look at home page of most ridiculous comment to make sure they are not fake..

Observe more ridiculous video in right hand column about aliens, conspiracies or with an attractive girl in the picture..

Get sucked into you tube hole..

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