Epigenetics: How Environment Shapes Our Genes

The burgeoning new science of epigenetics offers a cornucopia of insights- some comforting, some frightening.

For example, the male foetus may be especially vulnerable to certain common chemicals in our environment, in ways that damage not only his own sperm but the sperm of his sons. And it's epigenetics that causes identical twins to vary widely in their susceptibility to dementia and cancer.

But here's the good news: unlike mutations, epigenetics effects are reversible. Indeed epigenetic engineering is the future of medicine.