The Ghost In Your Genes - 10 基因外遗传现象

Our studies had really convinced me that it were the later experiences of the child as the child was growing up bombarded with years and years of, em, symptoms from the parents that accounted for the effect that we observed.

However, in Edinburgh, Jonathan Seckl was interested in stress exposure in pregnant women and wondered if stress effects could be transmitted to their children. He started some experiments with pregnant rats to see if exposing them to stress hormones² had any effect on their offspring.

And we found the next generation for the rest of the life span those animals themselves had altered stress responses and showed behavior that looked like anxiety.

To see if this was affecting the genes⁴ themselves, he decided⁵ to breed them and see if the stress effects could be found in generations never exposed to the stress hormone¹.

And their daughters and sons also got the propensity⁶ for abnormal stress responses.

For Seckl the only explanation was that a stressful event was throwing a switch on a gene³ which was then being inherited.

Oh! Come on! Let's go! Let's go! Come on! Come on!

His work might have stopped there until world events took a hand. When on 9/11 the planes crashed and the towers came down, Yehuda and Seckl were critically aware of the potential for the impact to be far reaching, even affecting generations yet to be born. Ailsa Gilliam was working in a building next to the towers.

As I left my building, coming out through the doors, there was a lot of ash floating through the air and some office papers. I knew that if I looked up, I may see something I didn't wanna see. Just the thought that people had died close to me. I pulled it down. I got very upset. I wanted to get out of the environment. Being pregnant, I did not want to open myself up to more emotional uncertainty⁷ and emotional distress⁸.

After the events of 9/11 unfolded, Yehuda and Seckl teamed up to study women like Ailsa who were pregnant at the time.

There were a lot of different opportunities to examine what the effects of 9/11 would be on the children who might be born to parents who developed post-traumatic stress disorder⁹ in response to 9/11, and particularly those who had been exposed in uteri.

When exposed to a stressful event, a person produces cortisol---- a hormone that helps regulate the body's response to that stress. If cortisol levels are too low a person finds coping with stress very difficult and are prone¹⁰ to PTSD: post-traumatic stress disorder.

New Words & Phrases:

bombard: If you bombard someone with something, you make them face a great deal of it. For example, if you bombard them with questions or criticism, you keep asking them a lot of questions or you keep criticizing them. 不断攻击;向...连续提出问题[(+with)]

cortisol: Cortisol is a hormone which is active in the brain while people are stressed. 【生化】考的索,皮质醇

1 hormone   

n.荷尔蒙，激素，内分泌

参考例句：

• Hormone implants are used as growth boosters.激素植入物被用作生长辅助剂。
• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body.这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。

2 hormones   

n. 荷尔蒙，激素 名词hormone的复数形式

参考例句：

• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body. 这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。
• The adrenals produce a large per cent of a man's sex hormones. 肾上腺分泌人体的大部分性激素。

3 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

4 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

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 propensity   

n.倾向；习性

参考例句：

• He has a propensity for drinking too much alcohol.他有酗酒的倾向。
• She hasn't reckoned on his propensity for violence.她不曾料到他有暴力倾向。

7 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

8 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

9 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

10 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。