Beyond Face Value Jonathan Weitzman Relishes Two Accounts of How Environment Can Influence the Script of Our Genome

COMMENT BOOKS & ARTS PHOTOLIBRARY

Inherited and environmental factors can switch genes on and off to give each of us, including monozygotic twins, a unique identity.

EPIGENETICS Beyond face value Jonathan Weitzman relishes two accounts of how environment can influence the script of our genome.

s an identical twin, I have always Epigenetics: The Ultimate Mystery of Conveying epigenetics to a broad been fascinated by what deter- Inheritance readership presents challenges. The field mines who we are. Nature’s clones RICHARD C. FRANCIS is in flux and the concepts are abstract W. W. Norton: 2011. 224 pp. £19.99, $25.95 Aare never truly identical, so what explains and technically demanding. Researchers the differences between my brother and The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern struggle to come up with a unanimously myself? How much of our identity is inher- Biology is Rewriting Our Understanding of accepted definition of the term epigenet- ited; how much acquired by interacting Genetics, Disease and Inheritance ics. And there is confusion in the literature NESSA CAREY with the environment? The field of epige- Icon Books: 2011. 320 pp. £17.99 between epigenetic phenomena and epigenetics, standing at the interface between netic mechanisms. The first describes the our environment and our genes, is begin- transmission of heritable characteristics, ning to offer answers. Carey offer very different takes. Francis’s thereby resembling genetics; the second Epigenetics explores how genetically thoughtful and succinct book focuses on the focuses on how genes are regulated, and identical entities, whether cells or whole narrative and the excitement of discovery, is more aligned with molecular biology. organisms, display different characteristics, rather than on the nitty-gritty details at the Francis is interested in the modes of inher- and how these are inherited. The past century molecular level. His personal tour includes itance and how these are affected by envi- witnessed amazing advances in our under- anecdotes from his travels around the world ronmental events. Carey refers more to the standing of genetics, but secrets remain hid- and allusions to popular culture. mechanistic events that change how genes den within the genome. Epigenetics research Carey’s book is more DNA-centric, are switched on and is now blossoming, offering a potential pana- focusing on epigenetic mechanisms and the off without altering NATURE.COM cea for these post-genome blues. chemistry of chromatin, which defines how the genes themselves. For Nature’s special Two timely books open up this emergent DNA is packaged around proteins in the Epigenetics, for on the Human field: Epigenetics by Richard Francis and nucleus. Her book combines an easy style Francis, is a form of Genome at Ten: The Epigenetics Revolution by Nessa with a textbook’s thoroughness. cellular control over go.nature.com/ugle41

534 | NATURE | VOL 477 | 29 SEPTEMBER 2011 © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved BOOKS & ARTS COMMENT gene activity. He presents the cell as a theat- rical production, noting that the standard view — with genes as directors, proteins Books in brief as actors and other biochemicals as stage- hands — needs to be reassessed. As an alter- Humanity 2.0: What it Means to be Human Past, Present and Future native to the ‘executive gene’ idea, in which Steve Fuller Palgrave Macmillan 288 pp. £19.99 (2011) the genome is in control, he urges readers Forget Frankenstein and Metropolis, says sociologist Steve Fuller. to think about the ‘executive cell’. Francis Neuroscience and technology are on a collision course that will relegates genes to members of the cast, and catapult us to ‘transhumanity’, a future in which the state of being insists that they are regulated by, not regula- human starts to look decidedly alien. Fuller works his way through tors of, cellular states. science, policy, history and philosophy, covering human biological A seasoned science writer, Francis is at roots and our aspirations to transcend them; the possibility of his best when describing abstract concepts enhanced evolution as technologies converge; a ‘new theology’ in a historical context. A chapter on devel- inspired by figures such as Jesuit palaeontologist–philosopher Pierre opmental biology reminds us that the idea Teilhard de Chardin; and our necessary quest for moral horizons. that form emerges gradually during devel- opment (known as epigenesis) arose in response to an earlier The Lost Photographs of Captain Scott “What makes concept, which held David M. Wilson Little, Brown 192 pp. $35 (2011) the field so that form is prede- ‘Lost’ is a refrain commonly associated with Antarctic explorer exciting is termined from the Robert Falcon Scott — lost race, lost hopes, lost lives. Now, a stunning that we have beginning (prefor- record of his last months has been found, giving a glimpse of new tools to mationism). Francis fieldwork at the ‘final frontier’. In keeping with the research aims of address old cautions us not to fall the expedition, Scott shot 120 photographs between Cape Evans and questions.” into the trap of using Beardmore Glacier before his team’s final, ill-fated push. Most of the the ‘genetic blueprint’ images — icy panoramas, portraits, snaps taken on the move — are or ‘genetic program’ metaphors, which he published here for the first time, with text by polar historian David M. sees as contemporary preformationism or Wilson, great-nephew of Scott’s science chief Edward Wilson. genomic determinism. He ends with an interesting concept — the ‘Janus gene’ — which has both the outward causal aspect Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America of gene function and an inward aspect that Shawn Lawrence Otto Rodale 384 pp. $25.99 (2011) is responsive to external cues. Less than 2% of US senators and representatives have a scientific Carey’s book is full of illustrations and background, but more than 40% are lawyers. Shawn Lawrence Otto entertaining metaphors. She describes suggests that is why US policy-making is rich in rhetoric and poor in the nucleosome as DNA wrapped around reasoning. Reminding us of the crucial separation of church and state “eight ping-pong balls … like a long liq- at the birth of the United States, Otto traces shifts in national attitudes uorice whip around marshmallows”, and to science and technology — from early wonder through atomic-era sees DNA as a film script, with plenty of fear to widespread rejection. That these shifts are happening precisely room for interpretation and retakes. Carey’s when big science is needed to tackle global challenges should, he experience of the biotechnology industry says, push researchers to re-engage with politicians. shows in her concluding remarks on the pros and cons of our growing understanding of epigenetics for drug discovery, and But Will the Planet Notice? How Smart Economics Can Save on understanding the impact of diet and the World environment on disease. Gernot Wagner Hill and Wang 272 pp. $27 (2011) These two bold attempts to bring epige- The plastic-bag militants have got it wrong, says economist Gernot netics to a wide audience are at the vanguard: Wagner. We can save the planet by cutting out scientists, politicians more books will follow as the field matures. and environmentalists in favour of economists. It’s they, he claims, But future authors should avoid using the who have revealed our mixed-up thinking, as we buy locally grown words ‘mystery’ and ‘revolution’ in their apples chilled for months, or clear rainforests to grow soya. Wagner titles. What makes the field so exciting is that calls for smart economics, such as capping pollution and paying we have new tools to address old questions. for free resources. Billions of us must be motivated for change to be Unravelling life’s mysteries? That’s not revo- meaningful — and the best incentive is market forces, he says. lution, it is why we become scientists in the first place. My twin brother and I are both professors studying genetics — I still won- On Extinction: How We Became Estranged from Nature der whether that choice was determined by Melanie Challenger Granta 272 pp. £20 (2011) genetics or the environment. ■ Writer and poet Melanie Challenger explores extinction, both biological and cultural. Roving through wild landscapes — Antarctica and the Jonathan Weitzman is professor of genetics Arctic, disused Cornish tin mines and old whaling stations in South at the Université Paris Diderot and director Georgia — she interweaves the science on ecological loss and climate of the CNRS unit for Epigenetics and Cell change with histories of failed industries, extinguished languages and Fate, Paris, France. wars. From albatrosses on Bird Island, South Georgia, to the Inuit of e-mail: jonathan.weitzman@univ-paris- Canada’s Frobisher Bay, Challenger combines her meditations on our diderot.fr fragmenting world into a finely integrated study of loss.