The startling phenomena of epigenetics and quantum biology (updated 22 October 2015)

Johann Mendel discovered genetics,
not epigenetics

Previous posts have referred to epigenetics and the fact that certain learned or acquired traits can be passed down several generations. This is not the same as genetic inheritance, by which innate physical characteristics (e.g. eye colour)  coded into the genes within the DNA of an organism are transmitted to its offspring by a fairly well established biomolecular process. The science of genetic inheritance started with the work of Mendel,   a 19^th century Augustian Friar, who experimented with the cultivation of peas.

 In epigenetics an organism interacts with its environment and changes in some way - physically or mentally or both. This change is then passed on to future generations and not just through the genes per se.

http://www.helladelicious.com

The extremely complex processes involved are only just beginning to be investigated, let alone understood. They involve a mechanism taking place in the 98.5% of a human DNA strand (tightly coiled within the cell’s nucleus) formerly dismissed as junk and recently studied as part of the ENCODE project. 4 million genetic switches are involved. These determine how genes work in concert with the Golgi apparatus (which is within the cell but outside the nucleus) to manufacture the precise grade and type of protein at the right place at the right time within a cell.  The proteins then have to be assembled and coordinated in barely understood ways to produce an organism. ( NB: all these processes and, many more at a subcellular level occurr on a scale small enough for Heisenberg's uncertainty principle to impose a limit on how far they can be investigated - like the universe before the Big Bang creation event.)

This is from Nessa Carey's new  book (see link below) and shows how complex are the processes which go on inside the junk DNA and help decide which genes are turned on, how and under what circumstance

A year or so ago I learned about an experiment on mice to discover whether psychiatric stress might affect future generations.

 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3826464/

The results suggest an epigenetic process. It is certainly not explained by the conventional science of genetic inheritance.

Larry Feig and Lorena Saavedra-Rodríguez, biochemists at the Tufts University School of Medicine, caused chronic social stress in adolescent mice. Female and male mice were exposed to chronic social stress involving social instability and disruption of social hierarchy from postnatal day 27 to 76. After treatment, a group of animals was used to evaluate long-term behavioural effects of the stress exposure, and other mice were used to generate first, second and third generation offspring across generations

The researchers then tested these stressed mice in adulthood using a series of standard laboratory measures for rodent anxiety, such as how long the mice spent in open areas of a maze and how frequently they approached mice they had never met before. Female mice showed more anxious behaviors compared with control animals (i.e. animals which had not been subject to these pressures) , whereas the males did not seem to be affected.

The offspring of both males and females subject o these stressful influences displayed more anxious behaviors, however, and ‘the males who had been stressed as adolescents even transmitted these behavior patterns to their female grandchildren and great-grandchildren. These results confirm previous studies that females seem to be at higher risk for anxiety.’

So this transmission of anxiety was passed down to females even by males who had not themselves been made anxious by stressful treatment during adolescence. Quoting the abstract in Biological Psychiatry:  ‘these findings support the idea that individual risk for psychiatric disorders that involve enhanced anxiety and/or social dysfunction may be dependent not only on the specific alleles of genes that are inherited from one's parents and on one's own experiences, but also on the experiences of one's parents when they were young.’ My italics.

In recent years research on epigenetics has been gathering pace. E.g. here is a link to a list of conferences and workshops on the subject over 2015-2016

The processes of transgenerational epigentics have enormous implications for the mechanism of evolution. They imply that random mutations are not the answer, a conclusion which many people of all faiths, including atheists, have already reached. Opinion polls show intuitive rejection of standard evolutionary dogma by a majority of people, regardless of religion or absence of religion. Mutations undoubtedly play a role in microevolution (e.g. modifications to limbs within a species over generations as the environment changes) but even these are turning out not to be random since the mutations conform to a pattern and it is, as far as I am aware, an accepted fact that no new mammalian,avian or reptilian species has been created since humankind appeared in the fossil record. New discoveries have been made e.g. in the depths of the jungle, but these are thought to be of long established previously undiscovered species. The only examples of new species appearing through selection forces working on genetic mutations are those of microbes and plants, and even here the mutations appear to be guided, i.e. they are not random.

In the last couple of years evidence has emerged of another field previously unknown to evolutionary biologists. Now that more physicists are entering the profession it has been discovered that quantum phenomena play a major role in nature and this is bound to  further change evolutionary theory in a radical way. In future posts I hope to do some justice to this aspect of biology, shown to be instrumental in bird migration (quantum entanglement), photosynthesis (superposition of states)  and odour detection (ditto). 

I can recommend Life on the edge: the coming age of quantum biology by Jim Al=Khali and Johnjoe McFadden

I am some way into this now and am enjoying seeing how the Creator has made nature a learning system rather than one driven by chance. However, a word of caution to the reader. The authors, having abandoned the old idea of evolution being driven by random mutations plus natural selection, still cling to their god of chance as the author of being. It is unfortunate that such good science writing should be marred by the imposition of authors' religious belief. Al-Khali is in an influential position in the media. Brian Cox imposes similar religious belief's on his BBC audience.

For evolutionary science to leap forward mainstream biology needs to wake up to the results of emerging discoveries like these. I have never seen epigenetic transgenerational transfer of environmentally derived information described on any BBC TV documentary yet it is of world shattering importance. That this works in conjunction with quantum phenomena seems a near certaintly.

And the processes and mechanisms involved originate, like the universe itself, from outside of space, time, matter and energy.

See also
 http://theweek.com/article/index/238907/epigenetics-how-our-experiences-affect-our-offspring

I have also started reading a new book by Nessa Carey, one of the pioneers in epigenetics, 

Junk DNA: a journey through the dark matter of the genome

Her earlier book, the Epigenetics Revolution, I have already read and I can highly recommend it.

Reach me at
cosmik.jo@gmail.com

John Sears. author
2077: Knights of Peace