Nature 2007,447:396-398.
Geneticists study the gene; however, for epigeneticists, there is no obvious ‘epigene’. Nevertheless, during the past years, more than
2500 articles, numerous scientific meetings and a new journal were devoted to
the subject of epigenetics. It encompasses some of the most exciting
contemporary biology and is portrayed by the popular press as a revolutionary
new science-an antidote to the idea that we are hard-wired by out genes. So
what is epigenetics?