Imagine you have been invited to a futuristic discovery center, a lavishly funded facility that has pioneered the ability to shrink people and objects many orders of magnitude. What if you could climb aboard an incredible shrinking submarine and travel into the heart of a living cell? This would be a tour like no other, to be sure! You’d get a glimpse of DNA, molecular machines, and cellular architecture, certainly, but you’d also bear witness to the workings of a hidden world of information and epigenetic controls operating beyond the physical structures of life.
On a new episode of ID the Future, historian of science Dr. Tom Woodward reads an excerpt from his new book Epigenetics and the Architect, co-authored with Dr. James Gills. And rather than beginning with definitions and diagrams, he invites us on an imaginative journey inspired by sci-fi movie classics like Fantastic Voyage, Innerspace, or Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
For decades, we’ve focused on DNA as life’s master blueprint. But modern discoveries have revealed additional layers of information that help direct, regulate, and coordinate cellular activity. These systems — collectively known as the epigenome — have opened an exciting new frontier in biology. In their new book, Dr. Woodward and Dr. Gills explore this frontier in depth.
So buckle up, close your eyes, and prepare to shrink to microscopic size as Dr. Woodward guides us through the bustling inner world of the living cell to give you a chance to grasp just how information-rich cellular life really is and why it can’t be so easily explained away by Darwinian evolutionary processes. Download the podcast, listen to it, or watch it here.
Dig Deeper
- Order your copy of Epigenetics and the Architect today!
- Did you catch Andrew’s two-part interview with Dr. Woodward about his new book? Here’s Part 1.