Episode description

Topic: Memories can be Inherited. Shocking, yes, but the research seems solid. The mechanism by which this is done involves the rapidly expanding scientific field called Epigenetics.

The entire field of epigenetics will radically improve our understanding in many different areas of biology and medical science over the next few decades. In today's show we focus mostly on only one impact which it is having already. In January of this year a new research paper showed that fear-based memories can be inherited. This was a highly controversial result; especially in light of the longstanding rejection by the scientific community of the now infamous, and discredited, planarian memory experiments of the 1950s and 60s. For fifty years we have known absolutely that memories can not be inherited. In January we learned that we were wrong. To discuss this reversal of established fact, I am joined by two experts:

Robert A. Hoyt is a freshly graduated biologist and chemist (dual-major).  He is also an author and member of SFWA.

Dr. Tedd Roberts is a neuroscientist, writer and public speaker. His research includes the study of nerve cell function; behavioral mechanisms; and detection of the patterns of neural activity which underly learning and memory. He is also part of a multi-university team working to develop a "neural prosthetic" capable of restoring memory by connecting between different regions within the brain.

BTW: Dr. Tedd Roberts has been on the show before. He was in three consecutive episodes in the summer of 2013 describing many facets of our growing understanding of how the brain works. Those episodes (like all past episodes of this show) are still available for your listening pleasure. His episodes are: May 29, 2013; June 5, 2013, and June 12, 2013.

Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 9, 2014 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 56 minutes] This panel was recorded in front of an audience on June 28, 2014 in Chattanooga TN at the SF&F convention LibertyCon.

Stephen Euin Cobb is an author, futurist, magazine writer and host of the award-winning podcast The Future And You. A contributing editor for Space and Time Magazine; he has also been a regular contributor for Robot, H+, Grim Couture and Port Iris magazines; and he spent three years as a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen's Universe Magazine. He is an artist, essayist, game designer, transhumanist, and is on the Advisory Board of The Lifeboat Foundation. Stephen is the author of Indistinguishable from Magic: Predictions of Revolutionary Future Science as well as A Brief History of Predicting the Future.