Episode Details

Your DNA is often called a blueprint, but a blueprint doesn't explain why a skin cell and a brain cell — carrying identical genes — behave so differently. The answer lies in epigenetics: a layer of chemical switches and markers that decide which genes are switched on and off. This episode explores how the same code can be read in countless ways, and how the environment leaves its mark.

You'll come away understanding what epigenetics actually is, how cells with identical DNA become wildly different, how experiences and environment can change gene activity, and why claims about “inherited trauma” need careful handling.

Talking Science is sponsored by Kinsoft. Visit www.kinsoft.com.au

Further reading: University of Utah – “Learn.Genetics: Epigenetics”; Nature – “Epigenetics” collection; Nessa Carey, The Epigenetics Revolution.