Our Genes Under Influence

Our whole body is a swarm of billions of cells. At the heart of each of them nestles the DNA we received from our parents and pass on to our children. Scientists have long thought that DNA alone ruled our biological destiny. They were wrong. Even though identical twins have the same DNA, they’re physically different. How is this possible? Similarly, between two bee larvae with the same DNA, what makes one a queen rather than a worker? All over the world, biologists have been exploring this mystery. Now they’re at the dawn of a whole new era, an innovative field of study called «epigenetics»: our DNA doesn’t control everything, it can be influenced by external or environmental mechanisms that turn our genes «on» or «off»! Diet, polluting agents, stress and many other factors can modify the physical organization of our genes. These epigenetic prints can be transmitted to our descendants. And yet, contrary to what genetics has led us to believe over the past few decades, nothing is definitive, as we also have the capacity of modifying our environment and eliminating these epigenetic prints! The epigenetic revolution is underway. We might now hold the key to our own destiny and to our children’s future...