Bill Truesdell wrote:
> Experience (learning) is one thing, shifting a DNA sequence
> is quite another. The former is transitory (change the stimulus that
> promoted the behavior) the latter is set and difficult to change.

First - I do not want to be seen as a salesman for the theories of
epigenetics!  I watched the programme (50 minutes - some not possible to
detail it all here) and personally found it convincing and compelling.  Time
will show if it is correct or not, but I suspect that it will only take us a
bit further towards the ultimate truth.

The programme did not suggest that the DNA sequence would be changed and I
agree with Bill that this can take a long time - although sometimes
mutations happen very suddenly.  The whole point of epigenetics, as I
understand it, is that life experiences can set switches which alter the way
that genes work - it can turn them on or off.  The point was made that the
human genome was initally expected to have over 100,000 genes, but we now
know that there are only between 20,000 and 25,000 and this is not enough to
provide the information required to build a human being.  However, when you
add all the switches that can be provided by epigenetics then the amount of
information that can be encoded is multiplied greatly.

Peter Edwards
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