Re:Have We Drawn the Wrong Lessons from Epigenetics?
by RockyMcNuts on Saturday February 28, 2015 @09:18AM
(#9123709)
Makes sense...what I don't really get is how that means 'heritability' other than through DNA.
Seems to me DNA is kind of like a recipe for beer, and on a humid day the beer comes out a little different with the same recipe. But if you go back to the original weather the beer will come out the same.
So if you sent a Dutch couple of today back in time to the diet and environment of 50 years ago, their kids would be the height Dutchmen would have been 50 years ago, since the DNA and environment are the same. Nothing else changed inside the Dutch that would make their kids taller, and the change in height isn't something that is 'heritable' through other than DNA.
Seems to me DNA is kind of like a recipe for beer, and on a humid day the beer comes out a little different with the same recipe. But if you go back to the original weather the beer will come out the same.
So if you sent a Dutch couple of today back in time to the diet and environment of 50 years ago, their kids would be the height Dutchmen would have been 50 years ago, since the DNA and environment are the same. Nothing else changed inside the Dutch that would make their kids taller, and the change in height isn't something that is 'heritable' through other than DNA.