What is it about?
Nature, as dictated by our DNA, is no longer the whole story: it is just a 'musical score' to be interpreted each time it's played.
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Why is it important?
Nurture starts at conception: the fertilized egg develops in response its immediate environment. This 'responsiveness' continues throughout life: our learning and memory depend on it.
Perspectives
The DNA molecule - and life - is believed to have evolved only once in its 3-billion-year history. The remarkable flexitbility built into it is not well appreciated. What had been considered 'junk' DNA turns out to be the orchestrator of life post-conception. This is the study of epigenetic, which extends into cultural and social studies.
Cecilia Wong
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Extended Heredity: A New Understanding of Inheritance and Evolution, Leonardo, April 2019, The MIT Press,
DOI: 10.1162/leon_r_01731.
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