Well, New Scientist is back why it went .. or, maybe even if it went .. we do not know ... though it would've been strange if it had sold out. After reading this week's issue we realise that it might've been missing because of something someone's mum ate when she was expecting them or something like that .. this is because of the e .. pig ..enetics. Easy to remember because of the little piggies.
Well, the e .. sow .. enetics is about how doing things may affect the children as well as things just passed down through the genes.
Usually it's just accepted that traits are passed down through the genes .. though that it might be more complicated has been suggested before and along these lines.
I'm tired and haven't got the magazine infront of me but I will try and remember some examples .. though I am the very tired lemmure tonight. It's really interesting and very important it seems.
One example given was from Holland during the war when there was a famine there and preganant women didn't get much to eat .. it was found later on that the sons of these women all put on weight very easily. One thing cutting down calories a lot does is slow the metabolism down because the body stores calories in preparation for a long time with little food so uses energy up very slowly .. that's why people often put weight back on after being on a strict diet .. their metabolism has slowed down.
So it appears the women had passed the slow metabolism down to their sons .... they hadn't had much to eat during their pregnancies and their metabolisms had slowed down and this had been passed down to their sons. It didn't say whether the sons children had faster metabolisms or not.
Another example was that of mice who had been neglected by their mothers .. the young mice grew up to be very nervous and it was found that there were differences in their nervous systems that had been caused by their reactions to the neglect .. their nervous systems were physically different from mice who had not been neglected as young mice. It was more than just a behavioural reaction .. there had been physical changes in their nervous systems too which had occured while their brains were still developing and remained in adulthood.
Something like this was found again in a group of men who had been abused as children .. there were differences in their brains too .. all these guys had, sadly, gone on to kill themselves.
Another example given was of mice who's fathers had snorted coke in the lab .. their babies had been born with bad memories.
This is showing that there is more passed down from parents than just a basic genetic code and that the environment can affect the genes and so affect the developing child too.
With video
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3411/02.html
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/ghostgenes.shtml
http://bioethicsbytes.wordpress.com/2008/06/30/epigenetics-the-ghost-in-your-genes
Shows how scientific thinking changes as new things come to light .. though this was suggested back along time ago .. just like climate change was predicted by British scientists back in the 19th century.
Anyway .. I have to go to sleep now .. I am a very tired lemuure.
Tomorrow I will read the article about the moon.
http://www.newscientist.com/home.ns
