The Ghost In Your Genes - 8 基因外遗传现象

No body had had seen this kind of thing before, so this was the first time and all the people looking at the gel and saying "No, this can't be right and that's the wrong gel", you know, how you get excited about it, and then you think oh, maybe this is wrong and you are not on the right track. And we were very excited, as excited as scientists ever get.

This meant that the genes¹ were not locked away. A simple environmental event could affect the way genes worked. And that could be inherited, as if a memory of an event was being passed down through generations. It was something many scientists regarded as impossible. If this effect could be observed in humans, the implications would be profound. It would mean that what we experience could affect not just us but our children and our grandchildren.

While these observations were just emerging from laboratories, Pembrey was still working at Great Ormond Street. He began to wonder why these links between generations would exist.

Now my reputation was made as a clinical geneticist, and so I was much freer to speculate outside my main career. I also like to stir things up a bit and it amuses me to speculate because I got nothing to lose. And if I'm right, well then that's very amusing. heheh...

He speculated why genes would carry a memory from one generation to the next. What evolutionary² purpose could it serve?

Maybe imprinting³ was used as a means of some sort of trans-generational adaption.

He thought it could be used for a mother to send messages to her baby in the next generation.

Something that always puzzled me ever since I was a medical student was what stops the baby's head jamming up in the birth canal.

The baby of course is growing in one generation, but the mother's pelvis was growing in the previous generation. So if the mother was starving when she was growing, so she had a small pelvis. Maybe her eggs had captured that information and so they were instructing the growth genes of the future babies to not work so much and for the baby not to grow too much so as to jam up in the birth canal. So, so there was some sort of coordination⁴ between the growths in two generations. That struck me as entirely⁵ reasonable.

He published his ideas in an obscure journal and largely forgot about it. After all, there was no evidence for any of this. It was pure speculation⁶. Then four years later Marcus received an E-mail from a doctor in Sweden.

Really came as a bolt out of the blue I just got an E-mail in May 2000 saying my paper was the only thing he could find in the literature, that in anyway, er, sort of tied in with his basic observations.

New Words & Phrases:

gel: Gel is a thick jelly-like substance, especially one used to keep your hair in a particular style. 胶体;凝胶

pelvis : Your pelvis is the wide, curved group of bones at the level of your hips⁷. 【解】骨盆

1 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

2 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

3 imprinting   

n.胚教，铭记（动物生命早期即起作用的一种学习机能）；印记

参考例句：

• He gathered her to himself, imprinting kisses upon her lips and cheeks. 他把她抱过来，吻着她的嘴唇和面颊。 来自辞典例句
• It'seems likely that imprinting is an extreme case of conditioning. 看来似乎铭记是适应的一种极端的情况。 来自辞典例句

4 coordination   

n.协调，协作

参考例句：

• Gymnastics is a sport that requires a considerable level of coordination.体操是一项需要高协调性的运动。
• The perfect coordination of the dancers and singers added a rhythmic charm to the performance.舞蹈演员和歌手们配合得很好，使演出更具魅力。

5 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

6 speculation   

n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机

参考例句：

• Her mind is occupied with speculation.她的头脑忙于思考。
• There is widespread speculation that he is going to resign.人们普遍推测他要辞职。

7 hips   

abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的

参考例句：

• She stood with her hands on her hips. 她双手叉腰站着。
• They wiggled their hips to the sound of pop music. 他们随着流行音乐的声音摇晃着臀部。 来自《简明英汉词典》