[Xmca-l] Re: Scientists find that memories may be passed through DNA

[Greg Thompson]

Interesting Jenna, any chance that you have details about the actual study?
This link describes conclusions without describing methods or findings. I'd
be interested to see what their measures are and how strong the effect is
and other things like that. As they say, the devil is in the details...
But if it is well supported and replicable, this would be a very
interesting finding - and one that could turn evolutionary biology on its
head since this sounds like Lamarckian evolution rather than the Darwinian
evolution.
Time for a paradigm shift?
-greg



On Sun, Jan 5, 2014 at 10:48 AM, Jenna McWilliams <jennamcjenna@gmail.com>wrote:

> I wonder if any xmca'ers have thoughts on this interesting piece of
> research about inheritability of memories. Here's a snippet, with the link
> to the full article below.
>
> New research from Emory University School of Medicine, in Atlanta, has
> shown that it is possible for some information to be inherited biologically
> through chemical changes that occur in DNA. During the tests they learned
> that that mice can pass on learned information about traumatic or stressful
> experiences – in this case a fear of the smell of cherry blossom – to
> subsequent generations.
>
>
> http://www.sciencegymnasium.com/2014/01/scientists-have-found-that-memories-may.html
>
>
>
>
> Jenna McWilliams
> Cultural-Historical Research SIG Communications Chair
> Learning Sciences Program, Indiana University
>
> ~
> jenmcwil@indiana.edu
> jennamcjenna@gmail.com
>
>
>
>


-- 
Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
883 Spencer W. Kimball Tower
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
http://byu.academia.edu/GregoryThompson