Today's interesting fact, has to do with Epigenetics.

Epigenetics is the study of inherited changes in appearance, or gene expression by mechanisms other than changes to DNA. Or in other words, how genes turn off and on from generation to generation. It has also been used to describe how genes turn on and off during the lifetime of an individual. In a foetus, genes switch on and off as the body grows.

It has been shown that when genes have methyl groups added to them, the action of that gene can be turned off or even have their actions changed.

While it was thought that these changes could not be passed on from one generation to another, its been determined that these changes can pass on through two or more generations. Changes the way that a set of genes work, that occurred to your grandparents, can show up in you and possibly your children.

The study of epigenetics is still in its infancy, but many are suggesting that the recent obesity epidemic might have at least some of its roots in the starvation of some of our ancestors.