–STEPHEN HAWKING
Mistakes is the word you’re too embarrassed to use. You
ought not to be. You’re a product of a trillion of them.
Evolution forged the entirety of sentient life on this planet
using only one tool: the mistake.
–ROBERT FORD (PLAYED BY ANTHONY
HOPKINS), WESTWORLD, HBOOur genes were once considered our biological playbook—
the code that ran our lives, including how our brains
functioned. Understanding this code was the goal of the
Human Genome Project, completed in 2002, with the hope
that by the end, the secrets to curing human disease
(including cancer and genetic diseases) would be splayed
out in front of us. Though the project was a remarkable
scientific achievement, the results were disenchanting.
It turns out that what distinguishes one person from the
next is actually quite insignificant from a genetic standpoint,
accounting for less than 1 percent of total genetic variation.
So then why do some people live well into their nineties and
beyond, maintaining robust brains and bodies, while others
do not? Questions like this have continued to perplex
scientists in the wake of the project, and have given rise to
the idea that there has to be some other factor, or factors, to
account for the wide range of differences in health and
aging displayed by the global human population.
Enter epigenetics, the phoenix to rise from the project’s
ashes. If our genes are akin to the keys on a grand piano