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Ron C. de Weijze's picture

epigenetic triggers

Rachel, "But furthermore, is this "something" deciding to create things?"

Most literally, "something" is turning on, or off, inheritance. This something is the immediate environment. From memory, a gene can be turned on in the next generation, when the previous generation has experienced e.g. famin. Pembry found that famin experienced by the parents can turn on a stress hormone in the children. Or the eating habits of the grandparent can determine the life-expectancy of the grandchildren. This is called the 'transgenerative response' in epigenetics. (That is, genetics immediately influenced by the environment.)

http://medlibrary.org/medwiki/Talk:Epigenetics

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