Lena: “so, Tina, you say that the lived experiences and the influence of the environment can change the way your genes works and this could be passed on to your children?”

Tina: “yes, that’s right, and it, indeed, happens without changing your genes but making them work in a different way”

Kelly: “how is that possible, without changing the genetic material?”

Bette: “it is known in insects and other animals since long time ago, for example, monarch butterflies each year fly 2,500-mile from Canada to Mexico where they winter; when spring arrives they come back north, but it takes three generations to complete the trip, however, no butterfly making the return has flown that entire route before; how do they “know” a route they never learned?”

Tim: “that’s right, as, in the case of the blossoming of plants, someone discovered that a non-genetic material controls the timing of flowering in spring it’s exactly as if the plant knew how many days have passed after the winter ended and that ability is passed through generations without participation of the genes”

Mark: “which is amazing, considering that plants don’t have a brain or central nervous system”

Shane: “that explains why sometimes some plants also stop flowering for generations without any genetic change”

Tina: “that is the so-called environmental factor, which can change your reactions, abilities, health and even tastes and preferences…, well no that we have no free will to do things but those factors can deeply influence in you”

Bette: “and, if the changes are favorable for the animal or vegetal to adapt, it could conduct into evolution”

Jodi: (smiling) “oh…, I remember we discussed that, a few weeks ago, and you told me about what makes a rat be a good mom”

Jenny: “rats…? What’s the deal, Bette?”

Bette: “an amorous mother rat, licks her offspring, and a cold one, doesn’t care for them like they were unwanted, the behavior is transferred from one generation to the other and is related to certain gene, the maternal gene, but if we change the progeny between mothers, and the unwanted youngers are raised by the amorous mom and the love ones for the cold mom, those offspring will behave as the adoptive mother and no as the biological one, when you check their genes, both rats the amorous and the cold ones, there is only one difference in the maternal gene, which is a little molecule that blocks the gene of amorous behavior making the mother cold, that molecule is not part of the gene but can be added and removed and the behavior changes”