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For whatever reason, epigenetics is somehow considered by a great many people to be some whackadoodle conspiracy theorist woo-woo.

When I posit the following explanation-question that helped me to understand at least that epigenetics does akshually come from science, either the light bulb goes on over one's head or it's seething hate:

How come all of the cells in our bodies have the same DNA, but they can be so different? In other words, why are we not comprised of an amorphous blob of identical cells?



Cells specialize based on the presence of certain chemical gradients, for example. These types of 'signals' that guide specialization already become apparent in a very early stage of embryonic development. I don't think that's part of the realm of epigenetics.


I read it in a book called The Epigenetics Revolution, so I'm going to stick with what the author wrote there.




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