The Ghost In Your Genes - 11 基因外遗传现象

But could this effect be transmitted to their offspring?

They found nearly 200 women of whom a number had actually been in the Twin Towers. About half of them developed post-traumatic stress disorder¹. We then looked at those women and found they had abnormal cortisol in their saliva². The most striking finding was, so did their babies. The argument in the Holocaust³ survivors⁴ had been that their children show abnormal stress hormones⁵ because they themselves have been stressed by listening to these tales recounted by their parents of their awful exposures during the 1940s. That could not be the case with the 9/11 survivors. These babies were one year old.

Not only did infants had lower cortisol levels but they were different, depending on how pregnant the mother was on 9/11.

The main effect was only seen with those mothers with PTSD who were pregnant in the last third of pregnancy⁶. Mothers with equal levels of PTSD who were pregnant in the first and second third of pregnancy at 9/11, there was very little effect on the babies' cortisol.

It suggested to us there couldn't just be about genetics, but there was something that was being transmitted in the late stages of pregnancy where the mother's symptoms were having some effect on the development of the offspring's cortisol system.

It appeared that epigenetics might be responsible that an event had altered the stress response in the children .

What these findings did was suggest to us that we need to be looking where we hadn't even considered looking before.

To know for certain, that this was an epigenetic effect, they'll need to be sure that their observations weren't simply due to high levels of stress hormones in the womb.

Now and here is the bit where we have to speculate. The animal work would suggest that this might then persist into the next generation.

If they find the same stress effects in the children's children of 9/11, then it will be clear that a genetic⁷ memory of a stressful event can travel through the generations.

That's the key thing next to find out. But the 9/11 population will be very very important for us to be able to follow what is a single discrete⁸ event.

The work of Yehuda and Seckl offers tantalizing⁹ evidence of proof of inherited epigenetic effects in humans. But they need data that extends beyond just one generation. The only way forward was to look back to the past. In Sweden, Pembrey and Bygren had data that provided the chance to study the effects of famine through many generations.

New Words & Phrases:

tantalize: If someone or something tantalizes¹⁰ you, they make you feel hopeful and excited about getting what you want, usually before disappointing you by not letting you have what they appeared to offer. 强烈的诱惑, 逗惹

1 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。

2 saliva   

n.唾液，口水

参考例句：

• He wiped a dribble of saliva from his chin.他擦掉了下巴上的几滴口水。
• Saliva dribbled from the baby's mouth.唾液从婴儿的嘴里流了出来。

3 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

4 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

5 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。

6 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

7 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

8 discrete   

adj.个别的，分离的，不连续的

参考例句：

• The picture consists of a lot of discrete spots of colour.这幅画由许多不相连的色点组成。
• Most staple fibers are discrete,individual entities.大多数短纤维是不联系的单独实体。

9 tantalizing   

adj.逗人的；惹弄人的；撩人的；煽情的v.逗弄，引诱，折磨( tantalize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• This was my first tantalizing glimpse of the islands. 这是我第一眼看见的这些岛屿的动人美景。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We have only vague and tantalizing glimpses of his power. 我们只能隐隐约约地领略他的威力，的确有一种可望不可及的感觉。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史

10 tantalizes   

v.逗弄，引诱，折磨( tantalize的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：