Story

Offspring can resemble a mother’s previous mate

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Balderdash (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-10-06 22:50 (#2T5D)

The lead author sounds like a terrible person, purposely conflating insect reproduction with a implied human connection that completely doesn't exist. AW.

Re: Balderdash (Score: 1)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2014-10-07 02:42 (#2T5K)

The lead author sounds like a terrible person, purposely conflating insect reproduction with a implied human connection
Was there a specific quote you're referring to? She did specifically say: "But we don't know yet whether this applies to other species."

Don't confuse the study authors for the journalist taking the story whichever direction they prefer. For an extreme example, the Guardian article on the same subject was one big estrogen-fueled rant about the journalist's previous boyfriends...

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/02/baby-looks-like-ex-research
human connection that completely doesn't exist.
Just because a human connection hasn't yet been proven, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. This is just the first study establishing that the effect exists... Humans absolutely are known to be greatly affected by other epigenetic effects, as TFA and tanuki both mention. It may take decades to determine how significantly affected, if at all, humans are.

Re: Balderdash (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-10-07 13:33 (#2T5T)

Absolutely, going by the quote in the summary right here.

""We know that features that run in families are not just influenced by the genes that are passed down from parents to their children. Various non-genetic inheritance mechanisms make it possible for environmental factors to influence characteristics of a child. Our new findings take this to a whole new level - showing a male can also transmit some of his acquired features to offspring sired by other males,"

From parents to their CHILDREN. She is talking about humans and human families. It's irresponsible of her. Worse, it's stupid.

Re: Balderdash (Score: 2, Insightful)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2014-10-07 20:34 (#2T5X)

What? You don't think fruit fly adults can be called "parents" and offspring can't be called their "children"?

I think your paranoia is running amok. And for some reason you desperately want to believe humans are immune, despite that being undetermined.

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Time Reason Points Voter
2014-10-07 20:35 Insightful +1 tanuki64@pipedot.org

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